The IHR Blog » IHR Digitalhttp://blog.history.ac.uk
Thu, 26 Mar 2015 17:24:58 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1New reviews: Magna Carta, Lady Antonia, memory and French Armyhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/new-reviews-magna-carta-lady-antonia-memory-and-french-army/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/new-reviews-magna-carta-lady-antonia-memory-and-french-army/#commentsThu, 26 Mar 2015 16:57:58 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=5268We’re delighted to be able to present to you a review of the new BL exhibition on Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy. John Sabapathy reviews a wonderful exhibition which is as much about Magna Carta’s 800 year reception as its immediate 13th-century matrix (no. 1749).

A further treat is a new Daniel Snowman interview, in which he talks to Lady Antonia Fraser about her work as a historian and biographer (no. 1748).

Next we turn to The Memory of the People: Custom and Popular Senses of the Past in Early Modern England by Andy Wood. Brodie Waddell believes that the author has produced a study that proves the centrality of custom and popular memory across more than three centuries (no. 1747).

Finally, Mario Draper recommends The French Army and the First World War by Elizabeth Greenhalgh, on the grounds of the quality of the extensive research, the clarity with which it is delivered and the insightfulness on offer (no. 1746).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/new-reviews-magna-carta-lady-antonia-memory-and-french-army/feed/0The Historical Aspects of Dilipad: Challenges and Opportunitieshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/the-historical-aspects-of-dilipad-challenges-and-opportunities/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/the-historical-aspects-of-dilipad-challenges-and-opportunities/#commentsThu, 19 Mar 2015 10:09:08 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=5209This post originally appeared on the Digging into Linked Parliamentary Data project blog, and is a guest post by one of the historians working the project, Luke Blaxill.

The Dilipad project is on one hand exciting because it will allow us to investigate ambitious research questions that our team of historians, social and political scientists, and computational linguists couldn’t address otherwise. But it’s also exciting precisely because it is such an interdisciplinary undertaking, which has the capacity to inspire methodological innovation. For me as a historian, it offers a unique opportunity not just to investigate new scholarly questions, but also to analyse historical texts in a new way.

We must remember that, in History, the familiarity with corpus-driven content analysis and semantic approaches is minimal. Almost all historians of language use purely qualitative approaches (i.e. manual reading) and are unfamiliar even with basic word-counting and concordance techniques. Indeed, the very idea of ‘distant reading’ with computers, and categorising ephemeral and context-sensitive political vocabulary and phrases into analytical groups is massively controversial even for a single specific historical moment, let alone diachronically or transnationally over decades or even generations. The reasons for this situation in History are complex, but can reasonably be summarised as stemming from two major scholarly trends which have emerged in the last four decades. The first is the wide-scale abandonment of quantitative History after its perceived failures in the 1970s, and the migration of economic history away from the humanities. The second is the influence of post-structuralism from the mid-1980s, which encouraged historians of language to focus on close readings, and shift from the macro to the micro, and from the top-down to the bottom-up. Political historians’ ambitions became centred around reconstructions of localised culture rather than ontologies, cliometrics, model making, and broad theories. Unsurprisingly, computerised quantitative text analysis found few, if any, champions in this environment.

In the last five years, the release of a plethora of machine-readable historical texts (among them Hansard) online, as well as the popularity of Google Ngram, have reopened the debate on how and how far text analysis techniques developed in linguistics and the social and political sciences can benefit historical research. The Dilipad project is thus a potentially timely intervention, and presents a genuine opportunity to push the methodological envelope in History.

We aim to publish outputs which will appeal to a mainstream audience of historians who will have little familiarity with our methodologies, rather than to prioritise a narrower digital humanities audience. We will aim to make telling interventions in existing historical debates which could not be made using traditional research methods. With this in mind, we are pursuing a number of exciting topics using our roughly two centuries-worth of Parliamentary data, including the language of gender, imperialism, and democracy. While future blog posts will expand upon all three areas in more detail, I offer a few thoughts below on the first.

The Parliamentary language of gender is a self-evidently interesting line of enquiry during a historic period where the role of women in the political process in Great Britain, Canada, and the Netherlands was entirely transformed. There has been considerable recent historical interest on the impact of women on the language of politics, and female rhetorical culture. The Dilipad project will examine differences in vocabulary between male and female speakers, such as on genre of topics raised, and also discursive elements, hedging, modality, the use of personal pronouns and other discourse markers- especially those which convey assertiveness and emotion. Next to purely textual features we will analyse how the position of women in parliament changed over time and between countries (time they spoke, how frequently they were interrupted, the impact of their discourse on the rest of the debate etc.).

A second area of great interest will be how women were presented and described in debate – both by men and by other women. This line of enquiry might present an opportunity to utilise sentiment analysis (which in itself would be methodologically significant) which might shed light on positive or negative attitudes towards women in the respective political cultures of our three countries. We will analyze tone, and investigate what vocabulary and lexical formations tended to be most associated with women. In addition, we can also investigate whether the portrayal of women varied across political parties.

More broadly, this historical analysis could help shed light on the broader impact of women in Parliamentary rhetorical culture. Was there a discernible ‘feminized language of politics’, and if so, where did it appear, and when? Similarly, was there any difference in Parliamentary behaviour between the sexes, with women contributing disproportionately more to debates on certain topics, and less to others? Finally, can we associate the introduction of new Parliamentary topics or forms of argument to the appearance of women speakers?

Insights in these areas – made possible only by linked ‘big data’ textual analysis – will undoubtedly be of great interest to historians, and will (we hope) demonstrate the practical utility of text mining and semantic methodologies in this field.

Next we have Thomas Dekker and the Culture of Pamphleteering in Early Modern London by Anna Bayman. Kirsty Rolfe and the author discuss a highly readable study, with important implications for critical understanding of ‘popular print’ and the cultures with which it interacted (no. 1744, with response here).

Then we turn to Crafting the Woman Professional in the Long Nineteenth Century, edited by Kryriaki Hadjiafxendi and Patricia Zakreski, which Zoe Thomas believes will positively contribute to a number of academic fields (no. 1743).

Finally there is David F. Allmendinger Jr.’s Nat Turner and the Rising in Southampton County, as Vanessa Holden reviews an account of the most famous slave rebellion in American history (no. 1742).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/new-reviews-roy-foster-interview-early-modern-pamphlets-c19-women-professionals-and-nat-turner/feed/0Wliat’s in a n^me? Post-correction of randomly misrecognized names in OCR datahttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/wliats-in-a-nme-post-correction-of-randomly-misrecognized-names-in-ocr-data/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/wliats-in-a-nme-post-correction-of-randomly-misrecognized-names-in-ocr-data/#commentsThu, 12 Mar 2015 10:05:29 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=5204This post originally appeared on the Digging into Linked Parliamentary Data project blog, and is a guest post by team member Kaspar Beelen.

Problem.

Notwithstanding the recent optimization of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) techniques, the conversion from image to machine-readable text remains, more often than not, a problematic endeavor. The results are rarely perfect. The reasons for the defects are multiple and range from errors in the original prints, to more systemic issues such as the quality of the scan, the selected font or typographic variation within the same document. When we converted the scans of the historical Canadian parliamentary proceedings, especially the latter cause turned out to be problematic. Typographically speaking, the parliamentary proceedings are richly adorned with transitions between different font types and styles. These switches are not simply due to the esthetic preferences of the editors, but are intended facilitate reading by indicating the structure of the text. Structural elements of the proceedings such as topic titles, the names of the MPs taking the floor, audience reactions and other crucial items, are distinguished from common speech by the use of bold or cursive type, small capital or even a combination.

Moreover, if the scans are not optimized for OCR conversion, the quality of the data decreases dramatically as a result of typographic variation. In the case of the Belgian parliamentary proceedings, a huge effort was undertaken to make historical proceedings publicly available in PDF format. The scans were optimized for readability, but seemingly not for OCR processing, and unsurprisingly the conversion yielded to a flawed and unreliable output. Although one might complain about this, it is at the same time highly unlikely that, considering the costs of scanning more than 100.000 pages, the process will be redone in the near future, so we have no option but to work with the data that is available.

Because of the aforementioned reason, names, printed in bold (Belgium) or small capital (Canada), ended up misrecognized in an almost random manner, i.e. there was no logic in the way the software converted the name. Although it showcases the inventiveness of the OCR system, it makes linking names to an external database almost impossible. Below you see a small selection of the various ways ABBYY, the software package we are currently working with, screwed up the name of the Belgian progressive liberal “Houzeau the Lehaie”:

Table 1: Different outputs for “Houzeau the Lehaie”

Houzeau de Lehnie.

Ilonzenu dc Lehnlc.

lionceau de Lehale.

Ilonseau de Lehaie.

Ilonzenu 4e Lehaie.

HouKemi de Lehnlc.

lionceau de Lehaie.

Honaeaa 4e Lehaie.

Hoaieau de Lehnle.

Ilonzenn de Lehaie.

Heaieaa ée Lehaie.

Homean de Lehaie.

Heazeaa «le Lehaie.

Houzcait de Lekale.

Houteau de Lehaie.

Hoiizcan de Lchnle.

Henxean dc Lehaie.

Houxcau de Lehaie.

Hensean die Lehaie.

IleuzeAit «Je Lehnie.

Houzeau de Jlehuie.

Ileaieaa «Je Lehaie.

Honzean dc Lehaie

Houzeau de Lehaic.

Hoiizcnu de Lehaie.

Honzeau de Lehaie.

Ilouzeati de Lehaie.

Houxean de Lehaie.

Hanseau de Lehaie.

Etc.

Although the quality of the scanned Canadian Hansards is significantly better, the same phenomenon occurs.

Table 2: Sample of errors spotted in the conversion Canadian Hansards (1919)

BALLANTYNE

ARCHAMBAULT

BAILLANiTYNE

ARCBAMBAULT

BALLAINTYNE

ARCHAMBATJLT

BALLANT1NE

AECBAMBAULT

BALLAiNTYNE

ABCHAMBAULT

iBALiLANTYNE

AROHASMBAULT

BAIiLANTYNE

ARlQHAMBAULT

BALLANTYINE

AECBAMBAULT

In many other cases even an expert would have hard time figuring out to whom the name should refer to.

Table 3: Misrecognition of names

,%nsaaeh-l»al*saai.

aandcrklndcrc.

fiillleaiix.

IYanoerklnaere.

I* nréeldcn*.

Ilellcpuitc.

Thlcapaat.

These observation are rather troubling, especially with respect to the construction linked corpora: even if, let’s say, 99% of the text is correctly converted, the other 1% will contain many of the most crucial entities, needed for marking up the structure and linking the proceedings to other sources of information. To correct the tiny but highly important 1%, I will focus in this blog post on how to automatically normalize speaker entities, those parts of proceedings that indicate who is taking the floor. In order to retrieve context information about the MPs, such as party and constituency, we have to link the proceedings our biographic databases. Linking will only be possible of the speaker entities in the proceedings match those in our external corpus.

In most occasions speaker entities include a title and a name followed by optional elements indicating the function and/or the constituency of the orator. The semicolon forms the border between the speaker entity and the actual speech. In a more formal notation, a speaker entity consists of the following pattern:

Mr. {Initials} Name{, Function} {(Constituency)}: Speech.

Using regular expression we can easily extract these entities. The result of this extraction is summarized by the figures below, which show the frequency with which the different speaker entities occur.

Figure 1: Distribution of extracted speaker entities (Canada, 1919)

Figure 2: Distribution of extracted speaker entities (Belgium, 1893)

The figures lay bare the scope of the problem caused by these random OCR errors in more detail. Ideally there shouldn’t be more speaker entities than there are MPs in the House, which is clearly not the case. As you can see for the Belgian proceedings from the year 1893, the set of items occurring once or twice alone contains around 3000 unique elements. The output for the Canadian Hansards from 1919, looks slightly better, but there are still around 1000 almost unique items. Also, as is clear from the plots, the distribution of the speakers is more right skewed, due to the large amount of unique and wrongly recognized names in the original scans. We will try to reduce the right-skewedness by replacing the almost unique elements with more common items.

Solution.

In a first step we set out to replace these names with similar items that occur more frequent. Replacement happens in two consecutive rounds: First by searching in the local context of the sitting, and secondly by looking for a likely candidate in the set of items extracted from all the sittings of a particular year. To measure whether two names resemble each other, we calculated cosine similarity, based on n-grams of characters, with n running from one to four.

More formally, the correction starts with the following procedure:

As shown in table 4, running this loop yields many replacement rules. Not all of them are correct so we need manually filter out and discard any illegitimate rules that this procedure has generated.

Table 4: Selection of rules generated by above procedure

Legitimate rules

Illegitimate rules

EOWELL->ROWELL

W.HIDDEN -> DENIS

McOOIG->McCOIG

SCOTT -> CAEVELL

ROWELiL->ROWELL

THOMAS VIEN -> THOMAS WHITE

RUCHARBSON->RICHARDSON

BRAKE -> SPEAKER

(MdMASTER->McMASTER

CLARKE -> CLARK

ABCHAMBAULT->ARCHAMBAULT

AROHASMBAULT->ARCHAMBAULT

CQCKSHUTT->COCKSHUTT

Just applying these corrected replacement rules, would increase the quality of the text material a lot. But, as stated before, similarity won’t suffice when quality is awful, such as is the case for the examples shown in table 2. We need to go beyond similarity, but how?

The solution I propose is to use the replacement rules to train a classifier and consequently apply the classifier to instances that couldn’t be assigned to a correction during the previous steps. OCR correction thus becomes a multiclass classification task, in which each generated rule is used as a training instance. The right-hand side of the rule represents the class or the target variable. The left-hand side is converted to input variables or features. After training, the classifier will predict a correction, given a misrecognized name as input. For our experiment we used Multinomial Naïve Bayes, trained with n-grams of characters as features, with n againg ranging from 1 to 4. This worked surprisingly well: 90% of the rules it created were correct. Only around 10% of the rules generated by the classifier were either wrong or didn’t allow us to make a decision. Table 4 shows a small fragment of the rules produced by the classifier.

Table 5: Sample of classifier output given input name

Input name

Classifier output

,%nsaaeh-l»al*saai.

Anspach-Puissant.

aandcrklndcrc.

Vanderkindere.

fiillleaiix.

Gillieaux.

IYanoerklnaere.

Vanderkindere.

I* nréeldcn*.

le président.

Ilellcpuitc.

Helleputte.

Thlcapaat.

Thienpont.

Conclusion.

As you can see in table 5, the predicted corrections aren’t necessarily very similar to the input name. If just a few elements are stable, the classifier can pick up the signal even when there is a lot of noise. Because OCR software mostly recognizes at a handful characters consistently, this method seems to perform well.

To summarize: What are the strong points of this system? First of all, it is fairly simple, reasonably time-efficient and works even when the quality of the original data is very bad. Manual filtering can be done quickly: for each year of data, it takes an hour or two to correct the rules generated by each of the two processes and replace the names. Secondly: Once a classifier is trained, it can also predict corrections for the other years of the same parliamentary session. Lastly, as mentioned before, the classifier can correctly predict replacements just on the basis of a few shared characters.

Some weak points need to be addressed as well. The system still needs supervision. But, nonetheless, this is worth the effort, because it can enhance the quality of the data significantly, especially with respect to linking the speeches in a later stage. In some cases, however, it can be impossible to assess whether a replacement rule should be kept or not. Another crucial problem is that the manual supervision needs to be done by experts who are familiar both with the historical period of the text and with the OCR errors. That is, the expert has to know which names are legal and also has to be proficient in reading OCR errors.

At the moment, we are trying to improve and expand the method. So far, the model uses only the frequency of n-grams, and not their location in a token. By taking location into account, we expect that we could improve the results, but that would also increase dimensionality. Besides adding new features, we should also experiment with other algorithms, such as support-vector machines, which perform better in a high-dimensional space. We will also test whether we can expand the method to correct other structural elements of the parliamentary proceedings, such as topical titles.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/wliats-in-a-nme-post-correction-of-randomly-misrecognized-names-in-ocr-data/feed/0New reviews: Roy Jenkins and his biographer, Abraham Lincoln and early modern alehouseshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/new-reviews-roy-jenkins-and-his-biographer-abraham-lincoln-and-early-modern-alehouses/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/03/new-reviews-roy-jenkins-and-his-biographer-abraham-lincoln-and-early-modern-alehouses/#commentsThu, 05 Mar 2015 14:27:41 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=5200More fruits of that pressure now, anyway, as we have a special feature on biographer John Campbell. Adam Timmins looks back over his previous work (no. 1740) as a prelude to Robert Saunder’s examination of his latest effort, Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life (no. 1741).

Then we cross the Atlantic, turning to Founders’ Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln by Richard Brookhiser. Sean Ledwith and the author discuss an innovative biography of the 16th President (no. 1739, with response here).

Finally we have Mark Hailwood’s Alehouses and Good Fellowship in Early Modern England. Jennifer Bishop believes that this book makes a very strong case for the alehouse as one of the key institutions in early modern society (no. 1738).

We start with Mediatrix: Women, Politics and Literary Production in Early Modern England by Julie Crawford. Alice Ferron and the author discuss a book which provides innovative close readings of the lives and writings of some of early modern England’s most famous and controversial aristocratic women (no. 1737, with response here).

Then we have Female Alliances: Gender, Identity and Friendship in Early Modern Britain by Amanda Herbert. Leonie Hannan praises a beautifully written and insightfully argued work, based on meticulous primary research (no. 1735).

Next up is Eric Hazan’s A People’s History of the French Revolution, and Michiel Rys believes this book succeeds in delivering a vivid, lucid, informative, detailed account of the French Revolution (no. 1736).

Finally we turn to Todd Henry’s Assimilating Seoul: Japanese Rule and the Politics of Public Space in Colonial Korea, 1910–1945. Mark Caprio finds this book brings an impressive depth to our understanding of the Japanese articulation of their colonial goals (no. 1734).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/02/new-reviews-early-modern-women-x-2-french-revolution-colonial-seoul/feed/0New reviews: Inter-war health, global history, Parisian smiles and US anti-communismhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/02/new-reviews-inter-war-health-global-history-parisian-smiles-and-us-anti-communism/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/02/new-reviews-inter-war-health-global-history-parisian-smiles-and-us-anti-communism/#commentsThu, 19 Feb 2015 15:04:15 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=5135First up is The Politics of Hospital Provision in Early Twentieth-Century Britain by Barry Doyle], as Martin Gorsky and the author discuss a new study of Britain’s inter-war health services (no. 1733, with response here).

Then we turn to Lynn Hunt’s Writing History in the Global Era. Julia McClure believes this book’s identification of globalization as a paradigm establishes the foundations for analysing the meanings and implications of globalization narratives (no. 1732).

Next up is The Smile Revolution In Eighteenth Century Paris by Colin Jones, and Jennifer Wallis finds this book beautifully complicates the notion that the smile is a static and timeless form of emotional expression (no. 1731).

Finally we have Little “Red Scares”: Anti-Communism and Political Repression in the United States, 1921-1946, edited by Robert Justin Goldstein. Jennifer Luff welcomes a new edited collection on inter-war anti-communism (no. 1730).

Next up is The Italian Army and the First World War by John Gooch. Mario Draper reviews a book which will almost certainly remain a seminal text for scholars of the period and anyone else interested in European military history (no. 1728).

Then we turn to G. J. Bryant’s The Emergence of British Power in India, 1600-1784: A Grand Strategic Interpretation, and James Lees finds this book to be a refreshing addition to the historiography (no. 1727).

Finally we have Robert Love’s Warnings: Searching for Strangers in Colonial Boston by Cornelia Hughes Dayton and Sharon Salinger. Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan believes this research fills an important gap in the on-the-ground history of pre-industrial poverty in the United States (no. 1726).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/02/new-reviews-trust-italian-army-british-india-and-colonial-boston/feed/0New reviews: John Wyclif, Medieval space, Cypriot communists and labour and liberalismhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/02/new-reviews-john-wyclif-medieval-space-cypriot-communists-and-labour-and-liberalism/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/02/new-reviews-john-wyclif-medieval-space-cypriot-communists-and-labour-and-liberalism/#commentsThu, 05 Feb 2015 15:41:49 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=5082We start this week with John Wyclif on War and Peace by Rory Cox. Christopher Allmand and the reviewer discuss a work which places Wyclif in a long historical context (no. 1725, with response here).

Then we turn to Space in the Medieval West: Places, Territories, and Imagined Geographies, edited by Meredith Cohen and Fanny Madeline. Sarah Ann Milne recommends a book which serves to substantiate and complement existing studies whilst offering a number of fascinating new explorations (no. 1724).

Next up is Yiannakis Kolokasidis’s History of the Communist Party in Cyprus: Colonialism, Class and the Cypriot Left, which Alexios Alecou finds to be an original contribution, rich with theoretical insights and practical implications (no. 1723).

Finally we turn to Labour and the Caucus: Working-Class Radicalism and Organised Liberalism in England, 1868-1888 by James Owen. Jules Gehrke believes this book is sure to become a valued part of the scholarly conversation (no. 1722).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/02/new-reviews-john-wyclif-medieval-space-cypriot-communists-and-labour-and-liberalism/feed/0New reviews: Eurasian Borderlands, peace, early American wars, Reformationhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/01/new-reviews-eurasian-borderlands-peace-early-american-wars-reformation/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/01/new-reviews-eurasian-borderlands-peace-early-american-wars-reformation/#commentsThu, 29 Jan 2015 17:57:03 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=5073We start with The Struggle for the Eurasian Borderlands: From the Rise of Early Modern Empires to the End of the First World War by Alfred Rieber. Simone Pelizza and the author discuss a book which is destined to be an indispensable reference work for both students and researchers for many years to come (no. 1721, with response here).

Next up is William Mulligan’s The Great War for Peace. Cyril Pearce reviews a significant, if flawed, contribution to the debate about the impact of the First World War (no. 1720).

Then we have the Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Early American Republic, 1783-1812: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by Spencer C. Tucker, which Jonathan Chandler believes this encyclopedia will be a welcome addition to the shelves of any library (no. 1719).

Finally we turn to Reformation Unbound: Protestant Visions of Reform in England, 1525–1590 by Karl Gunther. Donald McKim finds this to be a splendid study which clearly delineates the various Protestant visions of reform in England (no. 1718).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/01/new-reviews-eurasian-borderlands-peace-early-american-wars-reformation/feed/0New reviews: Lincoln and Latin America, English clergy, Louis XIV and the Indian Armyhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/01/new-reviews-lincoln-and-latin-america-english-clergy-louis-xiv-and-the-indian-army/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/01/new-reviews-lincoln-and-latin-america-english-clergy-louis-xiv-and-the-indian-army/#commentsThu, 22 Jan 2015 12:29:32 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=5043We start this week with Slavery, Race and Conquest in the Tropics : Lincoln, Douglas, and the Future of Latin America by Robert E. May. Phillip Magness and the author debate a book which gives us a Civil War that was both the product of international affairs, and a shaping force on their subsequent course (no. 1717, with response here).

Then we turn to Hugh M. Thomas’s The Secular Clergy in England, 1066-1216, and Katherine Harvey and the author discuss a book which is surely destined to become one of the definitive works in the field for many years to come (no. 1716, with response here).

Next up is Status Interaction During the Reign of Louis XIV by Giora Sternberg. Linda Kiernan believes this book presents historians of the court with a vigorous model to test (no. 1715).

Finally we have George Morton-Jack’s The Indian Army on the Western Front: India’s Expeditionary Force to France and Belgium in the First World War. Adam Prime finds this to be an extremely stimulating book, which should appeal to academics and enthusiasts alike (no. 1714).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/01/new-reviews-lincoln-and-latin-america-english-clergy-louis-xiv-and-the-indian-army/feed/0New reviews: London women, Tokyo Zoo, Callaghan Government, Mystic Arkhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/01/new-reviews-london-women-tokyo-zoo-callaghan-government-mystic-ark/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/01/new-reviews-london-women-tokyo-zoo-callaghan-government-mystic-ark/#commentsThu, 15 Jan 2015 16:44:24 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=5036First up is Women, Work and Sociability in Early Modern London by Tim Reinke-Williams. Hannah Hogan and the author discuss an inspiring starting-point for further, in-depth histories of women, work and sociability in early modern England (no. 1713, with response here).

Then we turn to Ian Jared Miller’s The Nature of the Beasts: Empire and Exhibition at the Tokyo Imperial Zoo, which Jonathan Saha recommends as being important beyond its obvious and substantial contribution to both Japanese history and zoo history (no. 1712).

Next up is Crisis? What Crisis? The Callaghan Government and the British ‘Winter of Discontent’ by John Shepherd. Ian Cawood reviews a concisely written, forensic political analysis of the defining historical myth by which all British political parties still live (no. 1711).

Finally we have The Mystic Ark: Hugh of Saint Victor, Art, and Thought in the Twelfth Century by Conrad Rudolph, which Karl Kinsella believes to be a thoroughly worked out and thoughtful piece of scholarship (no. 1710).

For those of you who have been using the Institute of Historical Research’s online research training platform, History SPOT you will have noticed a variety of changes recently. The sites web address has changed, its name has changed, and its design has changed.

The refit of History SPOT and its transformation into PORT (Postgraduate Online Research Training) is an exciting development. We believed that the old site was beginning to look tired but yet its contents still remain useful and relevant and there is still so much scope for expansion.

In addition the opportunity arose to merge the IHR’s efforts with the wider efforts of the School of Advanced Study (of which the IHR is one component). History SPOT has therefore become PORT, an online research training platform not just for historians, but for all humanities studies.

This is a good thing for historians. The extent of training provision on PORT will rapidly expand over the next few years and a vast amount of it will be relevant to students studying history. Already, PORT provides additional resources offering advice about completing a PhD and a host of handbooks providing links to modern languages resources. Soon a resource will be launched providing introductory guidance to research using quantitative methods, various videos covering all kinds of research needs, and more ‘history’ focused courses, such as managing your data as an historian.

[Note: Those familiar with History SPOT will see that not all of the old resources are currently online. These just require a quick fix to work with the new design and will be reappearing over the coming weeks]

First up this week we have Andrew Melville (1545–1622): Writings, Reception, and Reputation, edited by Steven J. Reid and Roger Mason. Alasdair Raffe and the editors discuss an edited collection from which there is much to learn, both about a poet and intellectual, and about his religious and political circumstances (no. 1709, with response here).

Next up, Michael Kennedy and Art Magennis’s Ireland, the United Nations and the Congo, and Bernadette Whelan tackles this meticulously researched and tightly argued work of military and diplomatic history (no. 1708).

Then we have to thank Charles Esdaile casting his eye over a number of major works produced to mark the bicentenary of Napoleon’s downfall, as he reviews Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny by Michael Broers; Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power, 1799-1815 by Philip Dwyer; Napoleon by Alan Forrest; Napoleon: the End of Glory by Munro Price; and Forging Napoleon’s Grande Armée: Motivation, Military Culture and Masculinity in the French Army, 1800-1808 by Michael J. Hughes (no. 1707, with response here).

Finally, we turn to the History of the Royal Navy, and Richard Harding and the series editor Duncan Redford discuss the first three volumes of a new history of the British Navy (no. 1706, with response here).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2015/01/new-reviews-andrew-melville-ireland-and-the-congo-napoleon-and-the-royal-navy/feed/0New reviews: 1812 revisited, Kershaw interview, phenomenology and the history of the psychehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/new-reviews-1812-revisited-kershaw-interview-phenomenology-and-the-history-of-the-psyche/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/new-reviews-1812-revisited-kershaw-interview-phenomenology-and-the-history-of-the-psyche/#commentsThu, 18 Dec 2014 12:05:34 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4969We start with the latest installment in our occasional podcast series. Daniel Snowman talks to Professor Sir Ian Kershaw about his forthcoming contribution to the Penguin History of Europe series (no. 1705).

Next, following his original piece for us last year, Jasper Trautsch has revised and updated his overview of works on the War of 1812, taking into account a number of new publications (no. 1387).

Then we turn to David Carr’s Experience and History: Phenomenological Perspectives on the Historical World. Hanna Clutterbuck thinks this book will be a valuable resource for almost any historian interested in thinking more widely about his or her subject (no. 1704).

Finally we have The Transformation of the Psyche in British Primary Care 1880-1970 by Rhodri Hayward. Roger Smith and the author discuss a book which successfully marries the theoretically reflexive practices of science studies and cultural studies with the empirical precision historians necessarily demand (no. 1703, with response here).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/new-reviews-1812-revisited-kershaw-interview-phenomenology-and-the-history-of-the-psyche/feed/0School of Advanced Study makes digital history with new appointmenthttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/school-of-advanced-study-makes-digital-history-with-new-appointment/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/school-of-advanced-study-makes-digital-history-with-new-appointment/#commentsThu, 11 Dec 2014 14:55:46 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4941The School of Advanced Study (SAS), University of London has promoted Dr Jane Winters, currently head of digital publications at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), to a personal chair in digital history. In the post below she explains a little bit about the development of digital history at the IHR.

In the summer of 1996 I was interviewed for my first job at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR). I can remember being asked whether I had ever used the web, to which the answer was an unqualified ‘no’. It’s a sign of how little penetration this new technology had that I got the job anyway. I might not have been familiar with it, but the IHR’s website (then called a ‘hypertext internet server’) had been up and running for almost three years. IHR-Info, which would become the current history.ac.uk website, was funded by Jisc as part of the Electronic Libraries programme (eLib), and this early investment laid the groundwork for twenty years of innovation in digital history within the Institute. In 1999, the IHR’s print and digital publishing activities were unified, although the IHR Digital brand was only applied in October 2010. During the past fifteen years, the department has been involved with a range of major digital research projects, including British History Online, the Bibliography of British and Irish History, Connected Histories, Early English Laws, Reviews in History and the History of Parliament Online. In keeping with the remit of the wider School of Advanced Study, its role has to been to promote and facilitate historical research nationally and internationally – by digitising primary sources, developing new tools, and identifying and mediating new developments in digital research.

All of this activity has been defined not just by innovation but by collaboration and partnership, whether with other institutes in SAS or with other universities, libraries and archives. It is also interdisciplinary, as evidenced by a project such as Digging into Linked Parliamentary Data, which brings together historians, political scientists, computational linguists, and computer and information scientists. As new Professor of Digital History, it is this collaborative and interdisciplinary activity which I am most keen to develop. The most interesting digital research tends to happen in the spaces between disciplines, involving people with a range of complementary subject and technical knowledge. The School of Advanced Study is well placed to foster such collaboration, and to act as a neutral space for the discussion of the significant issues facing us as humans in a digital age.

One of the exciting things about working in a field such as digital history is that you don’t know what will turn out to be important two or three years down the line. At the moment, I am particularly occupied with big data, through involvement with two projects funded by the AHRC (Big UK Domain Data for the Arts and Humanities and Traces through Time: Prosopography in Practice across Big Data) and the parliamentary history project that I’ve already mentioned, funded under the Digging into Data Challenge 3. Other areas on which I would like to focus include linked data, open access (of course!), the potential of the archived web for historical research, the communication of research using digital tools, making and materiality, and how humanities researchers engage with sound and moving image. I suspect that this list will look very different in a few years’ time, but it is probably enough to be going on with for now. I’m very much looking forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/school-of-advanced-study-makes-digital-history-with-new-appointment/feed/0New reviews: African intervention, medicine and religion, Ireland and colonialism and Jazz Age New Yorkhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/new-reviews-african-intervention-medicine-and-religion-ireland-and-colonialism-and-jazz-age-new-york/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/new-reviews-african-intervention-medicine-and-religion-ireland-and-colonialism-and-jazz-age-new-york/#commentsThu, 11 Dec 2014 11:01:26 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4934We start this week with Elizabeth Schmidt’s Foreign Intervention in Africa: From the Cold War to the War on Terror, as Jason Robinson and the author discuss a book which should prove useful and readable to many of those new to post-Cold War African history (no. 1702, with response here).

Next up is Medicine and Religion: A Historical Introduction by Gary B. Ferngren. Sophie Mann believes this work merits readership from any non-expert seeking a historical perspective on religious attitudes to sickness and healing (no. 1701).

Then we turn to Audrey Horning’s Ireland in a Virginia Sea. Emma Hart reviews a book which is a reminder that as historians move towards ever larger scales of inquiry, they should make sure that they integrate their approach with the insights provided by micro-history (no. 1700).

Finally we have a review article on Jazz Age New York by Christian O’Connell, in which he tackles Imperial Blues: Geographies of Race and Sex in Jazz Age New York by Fiona I. B. Ngô and Donald Miller’s Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America, which demonstrate that its history is a fertile ground for new scholarship, but also reveal the city’s ability to dazzle even the keenest minds (no. 1699).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/new-reviews-african-intervention-medicine-and-religion-ireland-and-colonialism-and-jazz-age-new-york/feed/0Version 5.0 of British History Online now availablehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/version-5-0-of-british-history-online-now-available/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/12/version-5-0-of-british-history-online-now-available/#commentsWed, 10 Dec 2014 13:39:02 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4925British History Online (BHO) is pleased to announce version 5.0 of its website, launched December 2014. Work on the website redevelopment began in January 2014 and involved a total rebuild of the BHO database and a complete redesign of its website.

For over a decade, BHO has been a reliable and accessible resource for primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland. Throughout the years, the project has evolved and adapted to changing technologies, new user demands and a variety of content, but as an eleven-year old web project, it was starting to look its age. We faced a problem very similar to the one described by the Internet Archive: our project had evolved far beyond the capabilities of our website and it was time for a comprehensive redesign of British History Online.

In order to rebuild, we had to start over from scratch. We switched to a new content management system and set about reconstructing our site. All the content has remained the same, but we have created completely new interfaces through which to access it.

The new search interface has been designed in response to user requests to be able to narrow down their search results. By applying one or multiple filters, users can control the level of specificity in their searches. The title search queries series and publication titles, and can be combined with the keyword search to further refine results. The new browse interface allows users to see everything that BHO has at a glance. They can also browse by source type, place, subject or period.

All the changes that we have made to BHO have been to increase the usability and searchability of the site as a whole. We have stripped the site down to its core, but we are eager to add new features over the coming year.

We are also very excited to introduce new subscription levels. With version 5.0, we have added premium page scans to BHO for the very first time. These page scans will be available to institutional subscribers, and we have introduced several new subscription levels to make them available to individual subscribers as well.

We start this week with Heaven and Earth in Anglo-Saxon England: Theology and Society in an Age of Faith by Helen Foxhall Forbes. Máirín Mac Carron and the author discuss a book which breaks new ground in considering the widespread Anglo-Saxon population’s engagement with Christian beliefs (no. 1698, with response here).

Then we turn to Bob Harris and Charles McKean’s The Scottish Town in the Age of the Enlightenment 1740-1820, which Ian Donnachie finds to be a formidable and scholarly volume, and a major contribution to urban, social and cultural history (no. 1697).

Next up is The Soteriology of James Ussher The Act and Object of Saving Faith by Richard Snoddy, which Susan Royal welcomes as a major contribution to the field of historical theology (no. 1696).

Finally we have the acerbic Margot Asquith’s Great War Diary 1914-1916: The View from Downing Street, edited by Michael and Eleanor Brock. Iain Sharpe reviews a labour of love carried out with great care and professionalism (no. 1695).

Next up is Matthew Cobb’s Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris in 1944. Karine Varley praises a book which is meticulously researched, engaging with a range of French, British and American archival sources, as well as numerous first-hand accounts and secondary works (no. 1693).

Then we turn to Magic in the Cloister: Pious Motives, Illicit Interests, and Occult Approaches to the Medieval Universe by Sophie Page. Helen Nicholson believes this study provides a context for the widespread accusations of sorcery and diabolism against political opponents in the 14th century (no. 1692).

Finally we have Brian Porter-Szűcs’ Poland in the Modern World: Beyond Martyrdom. Anita Prazmowska is not convinced that this book fills a gap in the market (no. 1691).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/11/new-reviews-scottish-gender-paris-1944-medieval-magic-and-poland/feed/0New reviews: Ottoman refugees, Indian soldiers, Counter-Reformation women and US Civil Warhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/11/new-reviews-ottoman-refugees-indian-soldiers-counter-reformation-women-and-us-civil-war/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/11/new-reviews-ottoman-refugees-indian-soldiers-counter-reformation-women-and-us-civil-war/#commentsThu, 13 Nov 2014 14:03:45 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4876We begin with a discussion between Ben White and Isa Blumi of the latter’s new study of late Ottoman population displacements, Ottoman refugees, 1878-1939: migration in a post-imperial world (no. 1690, with response here).

We then turn to The Testimonies of Indian Soldiers and the Two World Wars:Between Self and Sepoy by Gajendra Singh. Gagan Preet Singh finds this book to be a breakthrough in the historiography of Indian armed forces (no. 1689).

Next up is Simone Laqua-O’Donell’s Women and the Counter-Reformation in Early Modern Munster. Jennifer Hillman welcomes a refreshing approach and a welcome contribution to the existing literature on the Counter Reformation (no. 1688).

Finally we have Civil War as Global Conflict: Transnational Meaning of the American Civil War edited by David T. Gleeson and Simon Lewis. William Coleman believes that this book stands as testament to the fact that the American Civil War had global dimensions (no. 1687).

Hanna Sheehy Skeffington with Mrs Pearse c.1921. Skeffington was a co-founder of the Irish Women’s Franchise League in 1908. (NLI, INDH 100)

So, onto the reviews, and we start with Irish Nationalist Women 1900-1918 by Senia Paseta. Mo Moulton and the author discuss a book which has opened a rich field of inquiry, and one worth pursuing into the less celebrated terrain of post-independence Ireland (no. 1686, with response here).

Then we turn to Anthony Ossa-Richardson’s The Devil’s Tabernacle: The Pagan Oracles in Early Modern Thought. Justin Champion believes this book should become a foundational work for exploring the changing shape of the relationship between erudition and cultural change (no. 1685).

Next up is Popular Muslim Reactions to the Franks in the Levant, 1097–1291 by Alex Mallett. Megan Cassidy-Welch reviews a book which shifts our view of the actions of the Counter-Crusade quite profoundly (no. 1684).

Finally we have James G. Morgan’s Into New Territory: American Historians and the Concept of US Imperialism. Alex Goodall recommends a book which does a great job of showing both how and why the legacy of the Wisconsinite scholars has been so substantial (no. 1683).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/11/new-reviews-irish-nationalist-women-pagan-oracles-muslims-and-the-crusades-and-wisconsinite-scholars/feed/0New reviews: emotions, Achilles, crime and punishment and Dominicanshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-emotions-achilles-crime-and-punishment-and-dominicans/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-emotions-achilles-crime-and-punishment-and-dominicans/#commentsThu, 30 Oct 2014 15:08:55 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4848We start with Emotional Lexicons: Continuity and Change in the Vocabulary of Feeling 1700-2000 by Ute Frevert. Anna Jordanous believes this book’s strengths lie in its contextual diversity and in the thoroughness of the compilation and usage of reference sources (no. 1682, with response here).

Next up is Elizabeth Vandiver’s Stand in the Trench, Achilles: Classical Receptions in British Poetry of the Great War, which Marguerite Johnson recommends as a truly successful interdisciplinary achievement (no. 1681).

Then we turn to Murder Most Russian: True Crime and Punishment in Late Imperial Russia by Louise McReynolds. James Ryan and the author discuss a very significant contribution to the study of modern Russian history (no. 1680).

Finally we have Joanna Cannon’s Religious Poverty, Visual Riches: Art in the Dominican Churches of Central Italy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, which Michael Morris finds to be delightfully inquisitive while maintaining a respectful attitude toward religious Orders (no. 1679).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-emotions-achilles-crime-and-punishment-and-dominicans/feed/0New reviews: Western civilization, postcolonial Germany, Mediterranean queens and Victorian presshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-western-civilization-postcolonial-germany-mediterranean-queens-and-victorian-press/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-western-civilization-postcolonial-germany-mediterranean-queens-and-victorian-press/#commentsThu, 23 Oct 2014 13:16:34 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4839Anyway, it will take more than my lack of nutrition to get in the way of our reviews! First up this week is The Rise of Western Power: a Comparative History of Western Civilization by Jonathan Daly. John R. McNeill and the author discuss the latest attempt to address the question of the rise of the modern West (no. 1678, with response here).

Then we have Britta Schilling’s Postcolonial Germany: Memories of Empire in a Decolonized Nation, which Monika Albrecht believes to be a most valuable contribution to the field of the memory of German colonialism (no. 1677).

Next is Queenship in the Mediterranean: Negotiating the Role of the Queen in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras by Elena Woodacre. Estelle Paranque believes this collection of essays manages to highlight the importance of female rulers in the Mediterranean (no. 1676).

Finally we turn to Melissa Score’s review of Martin Hewitt’s The Dawn of the Cheap Press in Victorian Britain: the End of the ‘Taxes on Knowledge’, 1849-1869, which recommends the book as a meticulously researched account of the mid-Victorian phase of the campaigns against press taxes (no. 1675).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-western-civilization-postcolonial-germany-mediterranean-queens-and-victorian-press/feed/0Teaching A Level History using British History Onlinehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/teaching-a-level-history-using-british-history-online/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/teaching-a-level-history-using-british-history-online/#commentsMon, 20 Oct 2014 14:58:58 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4829This post was kindly written for us by Alex Porter – Head of History, Parmiter’s School

The paradox of teaching A Level history is that you know very well your students’ education would be better served by studying topics in greater depth but unfortunately this has the potential to hamper their achievements in examination. Nowhere is this more apparent than in textbooks.

An A Level textbook can be a comfort but the range of sources provided in textbooks is very limited. This limitation is for two reasons, the first being the examiners need to hold onto some sources to base examination questions on, but also because the textbook is supposed to be just enough for the average student to get by on. In theory you could use it all on its own and get the top grade. Yet this doesn’t necessarily help make the best historians, and the best students know this. The high achievers need to be stretched and this means more sources.

As a result, many history teachers will punch phrases into Google on a regular basis in the forlorn hope that there will be some magical archive of sensibly arranged contemporary information that could be mined for use in lessons. Those that teach courses on Henry VIII will likely have found solace in the comforting embrace of British History Online. I am one of them.

I was initially searching for contemporary accounts of Henry VII in order to put together a lesson investigating the circumstances of Henry VIII’s accession. What I ended up finding was Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 1: 1509-1514, an extremely rich seam of court papers and accounts from the reign of Henry VIII. It included a missive apparently from the Venetian ambassador dated 8th May 1509, in which Henry VII was described as ‘a most miserly (miserissimo) man but of great genius, who has accumulated more gold than that possessed by all the other Christian kings’.

This was perfect material. The provenance was such that it afforded the students an opportunity to consider how Henry VII might have been considered outside his realm, but also gave real meat to the idea of his wealth in comparison with others around Europe. It wasn’t long before I was reading details of the condolence note to Henry VIII from Ferdinand of Aragon.

Such information is invaluable to me in the delivery of this course. It provides me with a deeper understanding of the affairs at court in the period and allows me to drop anecdotes into lessons that pique the interest of my students. It also gives me the material needed in the delivery of lessons that go beyond the narrow confines of the set text.

Since this happy find, I have been back on British History Online more than once and not alone. My school has developed a “Bring Your Own Device” policy allowing students to safely use their phones and tablets in lessons, so I was able to encourage my students to undertake their own research in a subsequent lesson. It wasn’t long before a number of them were trawling through these records, attempting to establish the use of the term Alter Rex for themselves to see if it only ever applied to Wolsey.

With the use of websites such as British History Online and the assistance of a progressive ICT policy it has become possible not only to find extremely useful resources for myself but to encourage students to develop their learning independently. In ordinary circumstances I would be harvesting their finds as Wolsey gathered tithes but we have to change our A Level for next year and no doubt there’ll be a new set of narrowly focused textbooks to use. At least this time I’ll know where to look for some sources.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/teaching-a-level-history-using-british-history-online/feed/1New reviews: working class travel, material culture, the Alexiad and the Crusadeshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-working-class-travel-material-culture-the-alexiad-and-the-crusades/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-working-class-travel-material-culture-the-alexiad-and-the-crusades/#commentsThu, 16 Oct 2014 09:48:54 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4817We start this week with Michele M. Strong’s Education, Travel and the ‘Civilisation’ of the Victorian Working Classes. Susan Barton recommends an interesting and significant work covering the under-researched topic of educational tourism (no. 1674).

Then we turn to Craft, Community and the Material Culture of Place and Politics, 19th-20th Century, edited by Janice Helland, Beverly Lemire and Alena Buis. Heidi Egginton praises a worthy addition to the global history of material culture (no. 1673).

Next up is Penelope Buckley’s The Alexiad of Anna Komnene: Artistic Strategy in the Making of a Myth. Elisabeth Mincin and the author discuss an immensely valuable addition to the scholarship on this 12th-century epic (no. 1672, with response here).

Finally we have Travellers, Merchants and Settlers in the Eastern Mediterranean, 11th-14th Centuries by David Jacoby. Wei-sheng Lin believes that this book helps to open up room for more nuanced understandings of the Eastern Mediterranean between the 11th century and the 14th century (no. 1671).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-working-class-travel-material-culture-the-alexiad-and-the-crusades/feed/0New reviews: Racisms, Homicide, Beau Monde and Marco Polohttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-racisms-homicide-beau-monde-and-marco-polo/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-racisms-homicide-beau-monde-and-marco-polo/#commentsThu, 09 Oct 2014 11:23:00 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4793This week we start with Francisco Bethencourt’s Racisms: From the Crusades to the Twentieth Century. Panikos Panayi and the author discuss a book which moves the genesis of modern racial biologically determined ideology away from the ‘modern’ period (no. 1670, with response here).

Next up is Homicide in Pre-Famine and Famine Ireland by Richard McMahon. Conor Reidy reviews a book which activates a much-needed and more inclusive discussion in a clear and confident manner (no. 1669).

Then we turn to Hannah Greig’s The Beau Monde: Fashionable Society in Georgian London, which Susie Steinbach enjoys as a masterful integration of gender, politics, space, and material culture (no. 1668).

Finally we have Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues by Hans Ulrich Vogel. Na Chang believes this excellent book offers a wonderful resource for anyone wishing to study Marco Polo and Chinese economic history (no. 1667).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-racisms-homicide-beau-monde-and-marco-polo/feed/0New reviews: police control, British wildlife, communism, and child emigrationhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-police-control-british-wildlife-communism-and-child-emigration/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-police-control-british-wildlife-communism-and-child-emigration/#commentsThu, 02 Oct 2014 14:22:43 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4775It’s all change at the moment at the IHR, with a new Director, Professor Lawrence Goldman, starting yesterday, our Events Officer Manjeet leaving (she’s only going across the corridor to the Institute of English Studies – as our receptionist Beresford brilliantly described it, she’s ‘leaving for pastures new. Well, pastures, anyway’), and a new venue being selected last night for departmental drinks.

On with the reviews, anyway, and we begin with Police Control Systems in Britain, 1775–1975: From Parish Constable to National Computer by Chris A. Williams. Kevin Rigg and the author discuss a book which helps fill a clear gap in the historiography of policing (no. 1666, with response here).

Then we turn to Tom Williamson’s An Environmental History of Wildlife in England 1650-1950. Terry O’Connor praises an engaging read, written with clarity and care, and with only the minimum use of specialized vocabulary (no. 1665).

Next up is The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism, edited by S. A. Smith. Jennifer Cowe believes this excellent book gives the reader the opportunity to see the global nuances of Communism (no. 1664).

Finally Christopher Bischof reviews Empire’s Children Child Emigration, Welfare, and the Decline of the British World, 1869–1967 by Ellen Boucher, an ambitious book of wide-ranging research and powerful analysis, which firmly establishes the importance of child emigration to modern British history (no. 1663).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/10/new-reviews-police-control-british-wildlife-communism-and-child-emigration/feed/0Connected Histories, Lunatic Asylums and Witches in Early Modern Englandhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/connected-histories-lunatic-asylums-and-witches-in-early-modern-england/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/connected-histories-lunatic-asylums-and-witches-in-early-modern-england/#commentsTue, 30 Sep 2014 15:03:13 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4690This review was kindly written for us by our intern Grace Karrach Wood.

My original intention was to use Connected Histories in order to research lunatic asylums during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as this is my dissertation topic and therefore I already hold some knowledge about it. In order to go about this I input the keyword ‘asylum’ and the dates 1700-01-01 – 1900-12-31, using the ‘simple search’ function and reviewed the 5 matching resources from which the 7,908 matches came. However, it came to my attention that of these 5 resources, the authorisation failed for British Newspapers, the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers required a login and 19th Century British Pamphlets directed to JSTOR which displayed a preview of the front cover only. These set backs were impractical in terms of completing my research imminently, though still highlighted places which would be useful if I were accessing the sources from my university, which holds a subscription, or if I were in a position to subscribe to these resources as an individual. Nonetheless as a result I decided to change my topic to one which would have more accessible resources.

In order to choose a new research topic which was likely to have hits from large amounts of easily accessible resources I went back onto the Connected Histories homepage and scrolled along the ‘other resources’ bar until I found one specific enough to inspire me and have sufficient, relevant results. It was this method which helped me find the Witches in Early Modern England resource, which is free to use and covers the time period 1540 to 1700. Selecting this resource allowed me to read a description of the records, strengths and weaknesses of the content and the technical method by which the sources had been accessed and uploaded. This was particularly helpful as it allowed me to get a better idea of the records I would find when using this resource. As a result of this promising source suggesting a large amount of relevant content on witches I returned to the home page and searched ‘witch’ within the dates ‘1600-01-01 to 1800-12-31’. This search returned 44,586 matches across 16 resources, with Witches in Early Modern England appearing at the top, due to Connected Histories displaying the sources in order of relevance.

Searching through these 16 sources was particularly easy due to the layout of the site enabling you to preview 3 records from the source in addition to the option to ‘view more’, which shows additional hits without leaving the page. This allowed me to quickly decide whether the sources looked relevant without too much difficulty and saved time.

The sources which I found most useful were from John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments Online, Witches in Early Modern England, British History Online and Transcribe Bentham. Witches in Early Modern England was particularly useful due to the large number of first-hand accounts of witches it held from different perspectives, while Transcribe Bentham was advantageous because it showed the original document alongside the typed up text, allowing you to zoom and check for errors in the transcription yourself.

Overall I found that the Connected Histories page was useful in terms of identifying relevant sources in order to work from and discovering topics and details which you might not have been aware of before, however, the use of so many sources which needed subscriptions meant that it is only useful if you have a subscription. Furthermore, the fact that some of the resources had been published using inaccurate scanning processes meant that they were inaccurate and difficult to read.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/connected-histories-lunatic-asylums-and-witches-in-early-modern-england/feed/0New reviews: Childbirth, Melbourne’s youth, Justinian social conflict and early modern landscapeshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/new-reviews-childbirth-melbournes-youth-justinian-social-conflict-and-early-modern-landscapes/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/new-reviews-childbirth-melbournes-youth-justinian-social-conflict-and-early-modern-landscapes/#commentsThu, 25 Sep 2014 11:34:05 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4697Your deputy editor is working at home today, while builders, tasked as far as I can see with knocking an ever-bigger hole in the wall of our flat, toil around me. In the office, tapping away with other desk-based types, it’s possible to think that we’re actually doing real work. Next to someone with a sledgehammer, I just feel a bit silly…

Anyway, back to the pretence. First up this week is Paula A. Michaels’ Lamaze: An International History, and Salim Al-Gailani and the author debate a book which deserves a wide readership (no. 1662, with response here).

Then we have Young People and the Shaping of Public Space in Melbourne, 1870–1914 by Simon Sleight. Andrew May believes this book is important because it reminds us to constantly ask who and what the city is for (no. 1661).

Next we turn to Peter Bell’s Social Conflict in the Age of Justinian: Its Nature, Management, and Mediation. Douglas Whalin and the author discuss a study which self-consciously embraces a unique paradigm for the understanding of the age of Justinian (no. 1660, with response here).

Finally, James Mawdesley hopes that Earls Colne’s Early Modern Landscapes by Dolly MacKinnon will encourage other scholars to visit the rich treasure trove of evidence of early modern England’s rural landscapes (no. 1659).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/new-reviews-childbirth-melbournes-youth-justinian-social-conflict-and-early-modern-landscapes/feed/0Interning at the IHRhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/interning-at-the-ihr/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/interning-at-the-ihr/#commentsTue, 23 Sep 2014 15:02:19 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4687This post was kindly written for us by our intern Grace Karrach Wood.

During September 2014 I spent 3 weeks working as a ‘digital humanities’ intern at the IHR in Senate House, London. Though most of the previous interns here had opted to work for 3 or 4 days a week for the full month, I instead opted for 5 days for 3 weeks, meaning that the experience was particularly full on and almost felt like I had already graduated and this was my new graduate job – though panicking about my dissertation at the weekends begged to differ.

On my first day I caught a far-too-early train up to Euston and spent half around half an hour pacing around London wondering how early was too early to go in and eventually arrived at reception. I filled out a few preliminary forms and was told that everybody ‘drank a lot of tea’, (which was most definitely an understatement) and that I should ‘feel free to ask lots of questions’, which I certainly did.

Throughout the weeks I was slowly given more and more tasks to work on, from listening to podcasts and writing their abstracts to proofreading and checking footnotes on unpublished journal articles. Some of my favourite tasks included learning to use Photoshop in order to edit scanned Parish maps and retouching and sizing book images for Reviews in History, as well as assessing and indexing collective volumes, as the books themselves were interesting to read and it required lateral thinking.

Although some of the tasks were less interesting than others, such as renaming map sheets, I always had a choice in what I wanted to do and was also given some more simple background tasks in order to break the day up, which meant that I always had at least 2 or 3 choices of tasks to undertake.

Overall my time spent there was enjoyable and I felt like I gained a lot experience, in terms of practical editing and writing skills as well as simply understanding what it’s like to work in an office environment and actually be awake and on a train before 9.00am. Everyone was really helpful and welcoming and the casual work wear and flexible days and hours meant the whole process was far more relaxed than stressful.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/interning-at-the-ihr/feed/0New reviews: Robert the Bruce, Wellington, pain and the Nigerhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/new-reviews-robert-the-bruce-wellington-pain-and-the-niger/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/new-reviews-robert-the-bruce-wellington-pain-and-the-niger/#commentsThu, 18 Sep 2014 13:55:32 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4684As I’m sure you all know, it’s referendum day, and as well as marking the occasion with a relevant review (see below) I hoped to bring you breaking news from the polls, have texted my BBC correspondent pal earlier to ask how it was going. Just got his reply a few minutes ago – ‘Been up Arthur’s Seat. Sweaty’. I don’t think that really counts as a scoop…

Anyway, thanks to a super-quick turnaround from reviewer Fiona Watson and the author, we’ve got a discussion for you of Michael Penman’s new book Robert the Bruce: King of the Scots, an excellent work that shines a light on some extremely murky corners of history (no. 1658, with response here).

To a quintessentially British figure now, with Rory Muir’s Wellington: The Path to Victory, 1769-1814. Kevin Linch and the author discuss an outstanding achievement – the definitive biography of Wellington (no. 1657, with response here).

Then we turn to The Story of Pain: From Prayer to Painkillers by Joanna Bourke. Jennifer Crane enjoys a detailed, thought-provoking and fascinating piece of historical scholarship (no. 1656).

Finally we have David Lambert’s Mastering the Niger: James MacQueen’s African Geography & the Struggle over Atlantic Slavery, and James Poskett hails an accomplished and creative account of the troubling connections between Atlantic slavery and geographical knowledge in the 19th century (no. 1655).

This week, along with the rest of the country’s media, Reviews is focussing on Edinburgh – but rather than referenda, it’s the sewers we’re interested in, as Tom Crook and authors Paul Laxton and Richard Rodger discuss Insanitary City: Henry Littlejohn and the Condition of Edinburgh (no. 1654, with response here).

David Cameron was up there too, and one wonders what his predecessors in the Conservative and Unionist Party would have made of the prospect of a break-up of the union. Many of these feature in Stuart Ball’s Portrait of a Party: The Conservative Party in Britain 1918-1945. Andrew Thorpe finds this to be as much a major contribution to historical method as it is to the history of 20th-century Britain (no. 1652).

Then we turn to London Zoo and the Victorians, 1828-1859 by Takashi Ito, which Andrew Flack believes sets the agenda for future research in this area (no. 1653, with response here).

Finally Shami Ghosh reviews two works of medieval history which will stimulate many questions for future scholars and students, as he compares and contrasts Reframing the Feudal Revolution: Political and Social Transformation Between Marne and Moselle, c.800-c.1100 by Charles West and Episcopal Power and Ecclesiastical Reform in the German Empire Tithes, Lordship, and Community, 950-1150 by John Eldevik (no. 1651).

Our featured piece this week is on The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages by Ian Wood. Paul Fouracre and the author discuss a thoroughly researched and written tour de force (no. 1650, with response here).

Next up is Benjamin Smith’s The Roots of Conservatism in Mexico: Catholicism, Society, and Politics in the Mixteca Baja, 1750–1962 , and Thomas Rath recommends a book which is necessary reading for historians of modern Mexico, and makes a lasting contribution to Latin America’s agrarian, political, and religious history (no. 1649).

Then we have Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell by Jonathan Reinarz. William Tullett finds this book neatly summarizes many current historical perspectives on smell (no. 1648).

Finally William Haydock reviews two very different approaches to the history of alcohol consumption and control, Pubs and Patriots: The Drink Crisis During World War One by Robert Duncan and Try to Control Yourself: The Regulation of Public Drinking in Post-Prohibition Ontario, 1927-44 by Dan Malleck (no. 1647).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/new-reviews-middle-ages-mexican-conservatism-smell-and-prohibition/feed/0Researching the Crimean War using Connected Historieshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/researching-the-crimean-war-using-connected-histories/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/researching-the-crimean-war-using-connected-histories/#commentsWed, 03 Sep 2014 12:52:56 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4603This post was kindly written for us by Caitlin Brown, one of our interns via the Leicester University / IHR Digital programme.

I decided to use Connected Histories to research an area that I knew something about, but that I would like to investigate more. I picked the Crimean War as I had studied it from a Russian perspective but not from a British point of view, and I knew Connected Histories provided links to British Newspapers, 1600-1900. I used keywords such as ‘Crimea’ and narrowed down the date to between the 1850s and 1860s, as I wanted perspectives of the situation from both before and after the conflict. A problem I noticed straight away was that while many of the results were from British Newspapers, this was a resource that was restricted. This meant that these results were impossible to access from the IHR. However, if I had been researching from my own University Campus which has a subscription to British Newspapers, I would have been able to look at these resources. Apart from the newspapers and a picture from the British Museum, there were a limited number of resources available to investigate this topic further. I wondered if this was because I had selected a topic towards the end of the time period covered. Therefore, I decided to use the same methods as before, but instead investigate a topic firmly within the time period covered by Connected Histories.

I changed my topic to the Great Fire of London, and, using the date filters and the use of keywords, I searched ‘1666’ and ‘fire of London’. These results were more useful, as they were not all from restricted resources which required a separate login. Lots of results were thrown up, particularly when I narrowed the dates down to a few years around the actual date of the Fire of London (1666). A particularly useful resource I found was John Strype’s ‘A Survey of London and Westminster’, which not only accounts for the state of London, but also talks about the damage that the fire created, as well as Parliamentary acts that were put into place to deal with the damage created by the fire. It also gives specific numbers about what was damaged in the fire; for instance, 12,000 houses were burned down. Not only was this useful for learning more about the fire, it was a source I had not heard of before but was one that would be extremely useful in investigating London as a whole in this period. Similarly, I found a Dutch etching which portrayed the fire itself and its permeation throughout the city. Another resource I discovered through Connected Histories was a link to British History Online, which has several Journals of the House of Commons. This provided purely parliamentary perspectives on the handling of the impact of the Fire of London, for instance compensating people whose houses had to be blown up to prevent a further spread of the fire.

A problem I noted during both searches was that due to the process involved in putting some documents online, they were often unreadable and therefore not very useful. Also, sometimes the search engine can be slow, as it has a lot of information to process. Overall, using Connected Histories as a starting point for researching a particular subject is very useful, as it provides a wide range of sources. Some areas are more difficult to look into when you cannot access the restricted content, however this would not always be an issue, depending on location. There is some limitation in the amount of sources, but even these provide a stepping point by which to continue research.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/09/researching-the-crimean-war-using-connected-histories/feed/0New reviews: Britain and Hollywood, early modern women, early modern heresy, early modern authorityhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/new-reviews-britain-and-hollywood-early-modern-women-early-modern-heresy-early-modern-authority/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/new-reviews-britain-and-hollywood-early-modern-women-early-modern-heresy-early-modern-authority/#commentsThu, 28 Aug 2014 14:28:57 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4588Just back from the other side – no, not a near death experience, but a quick visit to the almost finished new look IHR! There’s a smell of fresh paint, the books are in place, and the librarians have the thousand-yard stares that come with weeks of twelve-hour days spent calculating shelf yardage. For more on the move see David’s blog post here: http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/library-move-under-way/ – and we’re due to reopen on Monday…

Anyway, life continues all the same for us on the mezzanine floor, and we start our reviews this week with Mark Glancy’s Hollywood and the Americanization of Britain: From the 1920s to the Present. Jonathan Stubbs and the author discuss a book which is likely to be enjoyed and admired by a wide readership (no. 1646, with response here).

We then have a nice cluster of early modern reviews for you to enjoy, starting with The Ashgate Research Companion to Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe, edited by Allyson M. Poska, Jane Couchman and Katherine A. McIver. Alice Ferron finds this book provides a truly inter-disciplinary review of historiography pertaining to the study of early modern women in Western Europe (no. 1645).

Next we turn to David Loewenstein’s Treacherous Faith: The Spector of Heresy in Early Modern English Literature and Culture. David Manning believes this book highlights some of the perils of both cultural history and interdisciplinary scholarship between literary and historical studies (no. 1644).

Finally Sara Wolfson reviews Reading Authority and Representing Rule in Early Modern England by Kevin Sharpe, a volume which is an essential read for scholars working on the history of political culture, and a fitting representation of a distinguished career (no. 1643).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/new-reviews-britain-and-hollywood-early-modern-women-early-modern-heresy-early-modern-authority/feed/0New reviews: Archbishop Pole, post-war children, scholastic thought and Charles Darwinhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/new-reviews-archbishop-pole-post-war-children-scholastic-thought-and-charles-darwin/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/new-reviews-archbishop-pole-post-war-children-scholastic-thought-and-charles-darwin/#commentsThu, 14 Aug 2014 14:11:01 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4549First up this week we have Archbishop Pole by John Edwards, as Francis Young and the author discuss a magnificent example of first-rate historical scholarship (no. 1642, with response here).

Next we turn to Lost Freedom: The Landscape of the Child and the British Post-War Settlement by Mathew Thomson. Laura King praises a fascinating, well-researched and insightful contribution to the literature (no. 1641).

Malin Dahlstrom then covers two works on Darwin by distinguished historians of biology, as she reviews Was Hitler a Darwinian? Disputed Questions in the History of Evolutionary Theory by Robert J. Richards and Darwin Deleted: Imagining a World Without Darwin byPeter J. Bowler (no. 1640).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/new-reviews-archbishop-pole-post-war-children-scholastic-thought-and-charles-darwin/feed/0New reviews: Edward I, empire and race, Weimar and poliohttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/new-reviews-edward-i-empire-and-race-weimar-and-polio/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/new-reviews-edward-i-empire-and-race-weimar-and-polio/#commentsThu, 07 Aug 2014 13:37:38 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4524Off to Edinburgh this weekend, just as things are hotting up in the independence campaign. However, as all those who know him will vouch, your deputy editor shies away from political controversy at all times, and my visit is solely a cultural one to take in a little bit of the Festival. Any tips on what to see and what to avoid would be much appreciated…

Anyhow. First up this week we have Nobility and Kingship in Medieval England: The Earls and Edward I, 1272-1307 by Andrew Spencer. James Bothwell and the author discuss a well-crafted and thoughtful book offering a balanced new interpretation (no. 1638, with response here).

Then we turn to A Problem of Great Importance: Population, Race, and Power by Karl Ittmann, as Scott Spencer reviews a fine book on the ins and outs of policy formation (no. 1637).

Next up is Anthony McElligott’s Rethinking the Weimar Republic: Authority and Authoritarianism, 1916-1936, which Colin Storer recommends as being an excellent and insightful book that challenges the reader to look anew at a familiar subject (no. 1636).

Lastly there is Paralysed with Fear: the Story of Polio by Gareth Williams, which Wendy Gagen praises as a book which gives an insight into the reality of medical research (no. 1635).

Oh, and we also have the bonus of an additional response, from Matthew Hendley to the review of his book Organized Patriotism and the Crucible of War: Popular Imperialism in Britain, 1914-1932 (no. 1623, with response here).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/new-reviews-edward-i-empire-and-race-weimar-and-polio/feed/0Using Connected Histories to explore the British interpretation of Abraham Lincolnhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/using-connected-histories-to-explore-the-british-interpretation-of-abraham-lincoln/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/using-connected-histories-to-explore-the-british-interpretation-of-abraham-lincoln/#commentsTue, 05 Aug 2014 09:22:36 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4518This post was kindly written for us by IHR Digital intern Beth Page.

As a History and American studies student, I thought it would be interesting to use Connected Histories to explore the British interpretation of Abraham Lincoln. I decided to look for sources that cover three areas that most people associated him with: the Union’s role in the American Civil War, the emancipation of the slaves and his assassination in 1865.

Because Connected Histories comprises a collection of British sources, I didn’t expect there to be a huge number of matches. To make sure the results were as relevant as they could be, I added a date filter – 1859 (the advent of the Civil War) to 1877 (the end of Reconstruction). There were 1,911 matches across 4 resources, 1,816 of these being under British Newspapers. This is not surprising given both Lincoln’s global status and the relatively low level of political interaction between the US and Britain during his years as President, suggesting there would not be too many parliamentary papers referring to him (there were only 29).

One of the most useful sources that I came across are those from Punch magazine, well known for its satire. This meant I was guaranteed a more scathing view of Lincoln, one that perhaps represented an educated, more radical opinion. Unfortunately, the website Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical in which the Punch index can be found doesn’t display the articles or illustrations, only a sentence summary. This means wider research is needed, although it is helpful to have a base from which to start searching. Interestingly, one of the results is a picture entitled ‘Britannia Sympathises with Columbia’, a sympathetic title in comparison to their other publications. This was published in May, 1865 alongside a poem that seems to apologize for the way Punch represented Lincoln in the time he was alive. It is an important source as it helps to differentiate the political view of Lincoln from the personal view, clearly two very distinct things.

Although my search returned a large selection of newspaper results, some of them are inaccessible due to the scanning process that leaves the article more or less illegible. Nonetheless the British Newspaper’s website does have a large selection of national and local newspaper archives allowing me to see if opinions differ based on locale. The general opinion seems to be a national mixture of support and criticism of Lincoln’s wartime policy and unsurprisingly, sympathy regarding his assassination.

Connected Histories provides a wonderful base for me to start my research although I don’t feel it has enough resources to reach a firm conclusion, but this may partly be due to do my choice of topic rather than the website. Yet the concept of using connections to save sources found as well as being able to browse other people’s connections helps to make this website a unique and valuable resource for anyone researching British history.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/08/using-connected-histories-to-explore-the-british-interpretation-of-abraham-lincoln/feed/0New reviews – Digital humanities, Scotttish women, women pirates and Carolingian friendshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/new-reviews-digital-humanities-scotttish-women-women-pirates-and-carolingian-friends/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/new-reviews-digital-humanities-scotttish-women-women-pirates-and-carolingian-friends/#commentsThu, 31 Jul 2014 11:59:59 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4492Back working from home this week, as the elongated summer occupation of my flat by relatives and their children has been temporarily lifted. There’s nothing like the prospect of returning to a house full of sugar-fuelled nine-year olds to make the IHR suddenly seem more attractive. Sadly the respite is brief, even now my phone buzzes with news of this afternoon’s arrivals. Perhaps moving to the seaside may have been an error…

Right, enough moaning about people being nice enough to visit, and on with this week’s offerings. We start with Steven Jones’ The Emergence of the Digital Humanities – James Baker and the author discuss a volume which has plenty to offer every historian (no. 1634, with response here).

Next up is Women in Eighteenth-Century Scotland: Intimate Intellectual and Public Lives, edited by Katie Barclay and Deborah Simonton. Catriona Macleod reckons this to be a rich and engaging work with some excellent contributions that will reward all with an interest in gender history in Scotland and beyond (no. 1633).

Then we turn to John Appleby’s Women and English Piracy, 1540-1720: Partners and Victims of Crime, which Daniel Lange judges to be a well written, insightful, and long-overdue study of the various roles women played as supporters and accessories of pirates (no. 1632).

Finally we have The Favor of Friends: Intercession and Aristocratic Politics in Carolingian and Ottonian Europe by Sean Gilsdorf. Levi Roach finds this to be an example of charter scholarship at its finest, combining diplomatic precision and rigour with a strong sense of the broader socio-political significance of the practices examined (no. 1631).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/new-reviews-digital-humanities-scotttish-women-women-pirates-and-carolingian-friends/feed/0New reviews: Interview with Amanada Herbert, and Great War at Home (4)http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/new-reviews-interview-with-amanada-herbert-and-great-war-at-home-4/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/new-reviews-interview-with-amanada-herbert-and-great-war-at-home-4/#commentsThu, 24 Jul 2014 14:26:16 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4475Summer has arrived with a vengeance at the IHR this week, and as ever in England the rarity of hot weather leads us to be unsure of how to handle it properly. For instance, some considerable time elapsed before we realised that what we thought was an air-conditioner was actually blowing out hot air….

Somehow, despite the conditions, we’ve still managed to produce this week’s helping of reviews, and we begin with a great interview between our own Jordan Landes and Amanda Herbert, author of Female Alliances: Gender, Identity, and Friendship in Early Modern Britain (no. 1630).

Then we have three more First World War reviews, beginning with Ross Davies’ review article on art from the First World War, in which he deals with a plethora of different books on the subject (no. 1629).

Next up is The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century by David Reynolds. Jay Winter praises a masterly history, written by one of our finest historians (no. 1628).

Finally there is Ryan Floyd’s Abandoning American Neutrality: Woodrow Wilson and the Beginning of the Great War, August 1914-December 1915. Moritz Pöllath advises historians and interested readers alike to read this book, an insightful study on America’s entry into the First World War (no. 1627).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/new-reviews-interview-with-amanada-herbert-and-great-war-at-home-4/feed/0Reviews Special Issue – the Great War at Home (3)http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/reviews-special-issue-the-great-war-at-home-3/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/reviews-special-issue-the-great-war-at-home-3/#commentsThu, 17 Jul 2014 15:12:52 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4450Apologies for the slightly tardy reviews today – I’ve had a busy week watching my flat fall apart around me, with the gushing out of the roof now being replaced by an ominous hole, and an equally ominous silence from those ostensibly responsible for fixing it. Perfect time for a long weekend visit from your deputy editor’s father – he may find his plumbing skills being tested to their limits….

Anyway, we continue with our WW1 special, and begin with a great introduction from Chris Phillips to the proliferation of digital resources stimulated by this year’s centenary (no. 1626).

Next up is The Children’s War: Britain, 1914-1918 by Rosie Kennedy. Rebecca Gill reviews the first full-length study of ‘the experience of children and the ways in which they responded to their mobilisation for war’ (no. 1625).

Then we turn to Gerhard Schneider’s In eiserner Zeit: Kriegswahrzeichen im Ersten Weltkrieg, which Stefan Goebel finds to be to be a landmark of historical research (no. 1624).

Finally we turn to Organized Patriotism and the Crucible of War: Popular Imperialism in Britain, 1914-1932 by Matthew Hendley, which reviewer David Monger believes to be a valuable book, providing considerable detailed discussion of three ‘patriotic and imperialist’ organizations (no. 1623).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/reviews-special-issue-the-great-war-at-home-3/feed/0Reviews Special Issue – The Great War at Home (2)http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/reviews-special-issue-the-great-war-at-home-2/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/reviews-special-issue-the-great-war-at-home-2/#commentsThu, 10 Jul 2014 13:41:04 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4446A sad and momentous day at the IHR, as we bid farewell to one of our longest-standing colleagues, James ‘He’ll never leave’ Lees, who , after years of dogged and loyal service, was finally unable to resist the promise of untold riches and the lure of the bright lights, and is moving to Swindon…

Anyway, life must go on – and following the IHR’s successful conference last week, we’re continuing with our special issue of Great War at Home reviews. First up is Disturbing Practices: History, Sexuality and Women’s Experience of Modern War, 1914-18 by Laura Doan. Kevin Guyan and Laura Doan discuss the latter’s book, which offers a clear and confident direction for how histories of sexuality could develop (no. 1622, with response here).

Next we turn to Robert Tombs and Emile Chabal’s Britain and France in Two World Wars: Truth, Myth and Memory, with Vincent Trott reviewing a broad and ambitious collection (no. 1621).

Then we have Civvies: Middle-class men on the English Home Front, 1914–18 by Laura Ugolini. Jessica Meyer believes the author has done a service to historians of gender of this period in providing a thoughtful introduction to a collection of important voices (no. 1620).

Finally, there is Beth Linker’s War’s Waste: Rehabilitation in World War I America. Jessica Adler thinks that this deeply researched, beautifully written, and tightly argued book should be required reading (no. 1619).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/reviews-special-issue-the-great-war-at-home-2/feed/0Reviews Special Issue – The Great War at Homehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/reviews-special-issue-the-great-war-at-home/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/reviews-special-issue-the-great-war-at-home/#commentsFri, 04 Jul 2014 12:01:06 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4417Apologies for the delay in the weekly Reviews in History post – our Anglo-American Conference of Historians on ‘The Great War at Home’ started yesterday (check out the programme at http://anglo-american.history.ac.uk/files/2013/03/Anglo-American-conference-programme.pdf, or follow developments at #aach2014), and I was out all afternoon chairing a packed session on conscientious objectors and war resisters. Or ‘cranks’, if you’re Jeremy Paxman.

Anyway, to coincide with the conference, we’ll be publishing a series of reviews on related books, and our first batch are up today.

We begin with the Cambridge History of the First World War, edited by Jay Winter. Richard Grayson and the editor discuss a comprehensive, insightful and challenging collection, which can be considered an astonishing achievement (no. 1618, with response here)

Next up is Ross Davies’ ‘A Student in Arms': Donald Hankey and Edwardian Society at War. Stuart Bell and the author discuss a new book on one of the most enigmatic personalities to feature in the narrative of the Great War (no. 1617, with response here).

Then we turn to The Soldiers’ Press: Trench Journals in the First World War by Graham Seal, which Adrian Bingham believes provides the most comprehensive and detailed overview thus far of a fascinating genre (no. 1616).

Finally we have The Aesthetics of Loss: German Women’s Art during the First World War by Claudia Siebrecht. Ann Murray finds this book identifies and underscores the vital importance of women’s art to our greater understanding of the First World War (no. 1615).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/07/reviews-special-issue-the-great-war-at-home/feed/0New reviews: Pamphlets, God, Canada and the Great Gamehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/06/new-reviews-2/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/06/new-reviews-2/#commentsThu, 26 Jun 2014 14:37:15 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4385I was all set to try and tie things in with the World Cup this week, but what with England already having disembarked at Luton there really doesn’t seem much point. Oh, and none of the books are football-related in any way…

So away from the ignominies of our sub-standard national team, and let us turn for reassurance instead to high-standard historical scholarship, beginning with Print and Public Politics in the English Revolution by Jason Peacey. David Magliocco and the author discuss an outstanding work combining archival mastery, theoretical sophistication, methodological innovation and lucid exposition (no. 1614, with response here).

Then we have Peter Watson’s The Age of Nothing: How We Have Sought to Live Since The Death of God. Beverley Southgate praises an extraordinarily successful wide-angled personal snapshot of the story of our efforts to live without God (no. 1613).

Next up is Canada and the End of the Imperial Dream by Neville Thompson, and Simon Potter believes this book offers a lively and readable illustration of how the British world perspective can enrich both British and Canadian histories (no. 1612).

Finally there is The Great Game, 1856-1907: Russo-British Relations in Central and East Asia by Evgeny Sergeev, which R. Charles Weller uses as the starting point for a lengthy review of Great Game historiography (no. 1611).

Mrs Thatcher and the Queen pretending to get on at the 1979 Commonwealth Heads of Government summit.

Welcome back to Reviews in History, your weekly digest of reviews of books and digital resources from across the subject.

Thanks for all your birthday present suggestions last week! As many of you pointed out, there are few tight domestic situations that high-quality chocolates can’t improve, and any potential crisis was averted. I also learnt a new acronym via a Twitter response – TMI … so I’ll get straight on with the reviews…

We begin with Philip Murphy’s Monarchy and the End of Empire: The House of Windsor, the British Government, and the Postwar Commonwealth. Ruth Craggs and the author discuss a carefully researched and beautifully presented book that chronicles the relationship between the monarchy, the UK government, and the decolonisation of the British Empire (no. 1610, with response here).

Then we turn to Elizabeth’s Bedfellows: An Intimate History of Elizabeth’s Court by Anna Whitelock. Nadia van Pelt believes this captivating book will appeal to a wide range of readers, from specialist academics, to a non-specialist public interested in Tudor history (no. 1609).

Next up is Steven M. Schroeder’s To Forget It All and Begin Anew: Reconciliation in Occupied Germany, 1944-1954. Camilo Erlichman thinks this book successfully introduces into the historiography the work of a number of hitherto neglected post-war institutions (no. 1608).

Finally, we have Gender, Nation and Conquest in the High Middle Ages: Nest of Deheubarth by Susan M. Johns, which Hanna Kilpi finds to be a useful addition to the scholarship, with its strengths outweighing its weaknesses (no. 1607).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/06/new-reviews-monarchy-empire-elizabeths-bedfellows-german-reconciliation-medieval-gender/feed/0New reviews: Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, early modern piety, Harlem, Mass Observershttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/06/reviews-felipe-fernandez-armesto-early-modern-piety-harlem-mass-observers/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/06/reviews-felipe-fernandez-armesto-early-modern-piety-harlem-mass-observers/#commentsThu, 12 Jun 2014 15:40:28 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4310Apologies for the absence of reviews last week – I was back up north on business (he said mysteriously) – and for the late arrival of this email today, for which my excuse is my sudden recollection that tomorrow is your deputy editor’s partner’s birthday, for which I am woefully unprepared. Given that her mum usually turns up with presents clearly bought from the 24-hour garage (mars bars, milk, petrol…) the bar is set mercifully low. And I’m confident that she’s not a subscriber to Reviews in History either…

To which we say – more fool her! She’s missing out this week on another great interview, as Anthony McFarlane talks to Felipe Fernandez-Armesto about his new book, Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States (no. 1606).

Then we turn to The Cooke Sisters: Education, Piety and Politics in Early Modern England by Gemma Allen, as Nicola Clark reviews a book which not only adds to our knowledge of early modern women’s experience, but brings together the adjacent historiographies of female education, piety, and political roles (no. 1605).

Next up is Camilo José Vergara’s Harlem: the Unmaking of a Ghetto. Daniel Matlin and photographer discuss a monumental, invaluable achievement, the product of an intensely felt and passionately described relationship with a neighbourhood and its people (no. 1604, with response here).

Finally, we have a review article by Nick Hubble encompassing James Hinton’s The Mass Observers: A History, 1937-1949 as well as Mass Observation III, the resource produced by Adam Matthew Digital (no. 1603, with authors’ responses here).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/06/reviews-felipe-fernandez-armesto-early-modern-piety-harlem-mass-observers/feed/0Royal Commission on Historical Monuments: Huntingdonshirehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/06/royal-commission-on-historical-monuments-huntingdonshire/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/06/royal-commission-on-historical-monuments-huntingdonshire/#commentsTue, 10 Jun 2014 16:29:49 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4263Last year British History Online published the complete series of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England. To introduce these volumes for readers who may not be familiar with the RCHME, we asked a number of experts to write introductions to particular counties. Here Charles O’Brien, one of the general editors of the revised Pevsner series from Yale University Press introduces the Huntingdonshire volume. Charles revised the volume Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough (forthcoming), so is the ideal person to put RCHME, Hunts in context. Charles writes:

Huntingdonshire was one of the smallest counties of England. In 1965 it was merged with the Soke of Peterborough as a new county but both were abolished in 1974 and absorbed into the newly reconstituted county of Cambridgeshire. Huntingdonshire’s identity is preserved as a district within Cambridgeshire but appreciation of local architectural identity is easily lost and so historians should still value the coverage given to it in one of the earliest RCHME inventories, published in 1926.

Nikolaus Pevsner, in his survey of Huntingdonshire for the Buildings of England series (1st ed. 1968) relied heavily on the Commission’s inventory while admitting ‘I am only too well aware of the inadequacies of my gazetteer. Anyone who studies the volume [of the RCHM] can see for himself how many timber-framed houses, how many staircases, how many domestic fitments are left, and guess from that how much more is missing for the C18 which the Royal Commission at the time …did not include’. Pevsner’s copy of the volume remains in the Pevsner Architectural Guides office at Yale University Press, and throughout the volume are his minute annotations and strikings out, indicating that the RCHME volume was in his hands as he carried out his visits during the spring of 1967.

Staircase at Stibbington Hall, 1625

A notable contribution to the Hutingdonshire volume was provided by Sidney Inskip Ladds (1867-1950), architect and local historian who became one of the authors for the three volumes of the Victoria History of the Counties of England (1926-1936). Ladds came from a local family, his grandfather was rector of Ellington, one of the many stone churches with a tall Perp spire for which Huntingdonshire is, or should be, well-known, and his father John Ladds was also an architect, with a modest living from church restorations in the later years of his life, an area of practise which would dominate Sidney’s working life. Partly as a consequence of his church work Ladds accumulated a very considerable body of knowledge of Huntingdonshire’s buildings and his voluminous files of scraps of paper recording his observations, names of architects, genealogy, recollections of incumbents and others are lodged at the Norris Museum, St Ives. Much of his close interest in buildings of every period is reflected in the coverage of the VCH volumes and clearly expressed in the RCHME inventory.

At least part of the pleasure to be taken from the RCHME volumes of the earlier period is in making comparisons between the photographs with the present day, especially the village scenes with their car-less and thus immensely spacious streets but also in the general character of the vernacular buildings of the locality many of which have been significantly altered since the early C20, if not demolished. Others are pleasantly unchanged (the interior of the Lion Hotel, Buckden of c.1500 is an example) and for churches and major houses there is little to record in the way of loss. Only a small proportion of the county’s buildings recorded by photos in the volume have disappeared, notably Conington Castle, but among the timber-framed buildings there had even by the 1960s been a higher rate of attrition and one will search in vain for some of the houses recorded in the plates section of the volume or at least deplore the often insensitive restoration to which they were later subjected, e.g. a seventeenth-century house at Offord Cluny (plate 102) which is now hardly recognisable.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/06/royal-commission-on-historical-monuments-huntingdonshire/feed/0New Reviews: Claire Tomalin interview, medieval memory, pyschoanalysis, early modern womenhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-claire-tomalin-interview-medieval-memory-pyschoanalysis-early-modern-women/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-claire-tomalin-interview-medieval-memory-pyschoanalysis-early-modern-women/#commentsThu, 29 May 2014 13:35:44 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4225I’ve just finished reading, and would heartily recommend, Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life by Nina Stibbe – which features various characters from the 1980s London literary scene, including by chance none other than this week’s Reviews interviewee, Claire Tomalin. She comes across well in the book, and well in Daniel Snowman’s interview – please do have a listen, and do let us know what you think (no. 1602).

Back to our conventional reviews, and first up is Memory and Commemoration in Medieval Culture, edited by Elma Brenner, Meredith Cohen and Mary Franklin-Brown. Emily Guerry and the editors discuss a multi-disciplinary volume greatly enhances our comprehension of medieval cultural history in France (no. 1601, with response here).

Then we turn to Michal Shapira’s The War Inside: Psychoanalysis, Total War and the Making of the Democratic Self in Post-War Britain. Helen McCarthy finds that this absorbing book is a valuable contribution to the literature (no. 1600).

Finally, there is Attending to Early Modern Women: Conflict and Concord, edited by Karen Nelson, which Dustin Neighbours believes is a valuable collection to read and own as well as employ in future studies of the lives of early modern women (no. 1599).

One of the main aims of the Big UK Domain Data for the Arts and Humanities project is to involve arts and humanities researchers in the development of tools for analysing web archives, thereby ensuring that those tools meet real rather than perceived researcher needs. We recently ran an open competition inviting researchers to submit proposals across a range of disciplines which focus on the archived web, and have selected 11 from a tremendously strong and varied set of applications. The topics that will be studied over the next eight months are:

Rowan Aust – Tracing notions of heritage

Rona Cran – Beat literature in the contemporary imagination

Richard Deswarte – Revealing British Eurosceptism in the UK web domain and archive

Chris Fryer – The UK Parliament Web Archive

Saskia Huc-Hepher – An ethnosemiotic study of London French habitus as displayed in blogs

Alison Kay – Capture, commemoration and the citizen-historian: Digital Shoebox archives relating to P.O.W.s in the Second World War

Harry Raffal – The MOD’s online development and strategy for recruitment between 1996 and 2013

Lorna Richardson – Public archaeology: a digital perspective

Helen Taylor – Do online networks exist for the poetry community?

We very much look forward to working with our bursary holders over the coming months, and will be showcasing some of their research findings on the project blog.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/big-uk-domain-data-for-the-arts-and-humanities-welcome-to-our-11-bursary-holders/feed/0New reviews: Queens, migration, public opinion and Moscowhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-queens-migration-public-opinion-and-moscow/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-queens-migration-public-opinion-and-moscow/#commentsThu, 22 May 2014 14:23:24 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4190Many apologies for bragging about having overcome our technical problems, then not being able to send the email, then sending two emails…as Julian Cope used to say halfway through some shambolic concert: ‘My inner soundtrack is telling me – be more professional!’

So, without further ado, and with an air of calm competency – here are the reviews.

We begin with Elena Woodacre’s The Queens Regnant of Navarre: Succession, Politics and Partnership 1274-1512. Michelle Armstrong-Partida and the author discuss a survey of five queens and their strategies for ruling which offers much to the study of queenship (no. 1598, with response here).

Then we turn to Empire, Migration and Identity in the British World, edited by Kent Fedorowich and Andrew S. Thompson. Esme Cleall finds plenty of rich and exciting material in a collection which is a useful addition to the existing scholarship (no. 1597).

Next up is James Thompson’s British Political Culture and the Idea of ‘Public Opinion’, 1867-1914, and Ben Weinstein believes that although some might be put off by the absence of a uniform, linear narrative, this book’s complexity is a source of great strength (no. 1596).

Finally Jonathan Waterlow reviews Moscow 1937 by Karl Schlögel, a book which skips like a stone across the water: we rarely go beneath the surface level, but the trajectory of travel is undeniably compelling (no. 1595).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-queens-migration-public-opinion-and-moscow/feed/0New reviews: Suffrage, US in Middle East, supernatural Catholics and the medieval Biblehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-suffrage-us-in-middle-east-supernatural-catholics-and-the-medieval-bible/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-suffrage-us-in-middle-east-supernatural-catholics-and-the-medieval-bible/#commentsThu, 15 May 2014 13:28:02 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4157To those of you who have experienced any difficulties this week accessing Reviews, many apologies – the whole of the University was affected by a network outage caused by a software bug. As you can tell, I haven’t a clue what was going on, but it certainly demonstrated how little can be done in these days in the absence of the internet. People we hadn’t seen in the flesh for years gathered pensively in our office, sipping tea and attempting to answer trivia questions without the benefit of Google…

Anyway, thank the masters of the web, we are back in action in time for our reviews, which this week start with The Aftermath of Suffrage: Women, Gender, and Politics in Britain, 1918-1945, edited by Julie Gottlieb and Richard Toye. Tehmina Goskar and the editors discuss a painstaking work which the reviewer believes shows the need to return to women’s rather than gender history (no. 1594, with response here).

Next up is Rasid Khalidi’s Brokers of Deceit: How the US has undermined peace in the Middle East, which Daniel Strieff finds a cogently argued, timely and highly readable book (no. 1593).

Then we turn to English Catholics and the Supernatural, 1553-1829 by Francis Young. Emilie Murphy recommends this book to anyone interested in the history of Catholicism, the intellectual and religious history of post-Reformation England, and early modern engagement with the supernatural (no. 1592).

Finally we have Eyal Poleg’s Approaching the Bible in Medieval England, whichRichard Marsden praises as an ambitious book which tackles a massive range of material with great assurance (no. 1591).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-suffrage-us-in-middle-east-supernatural-catholics-and-the-medieval-bible/feed/0New reviews: Black Detroit, guano, predestinarians and Stalinismhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-black-detroit-guano-predestinarians-and-stalinism/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-black-detroit-guano-predestinarians-and-stalinism/#commentsThu, 08 May 2014 14:14:43 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4095Just occasionally the monastic silence that prevails in the IHR Digital office is broken by the gentle chiming of hushed conversation (work-related of course). In one such interlude this morning I mentioned today’s reviews, and expressed my concern that perhaps a history of guano might be a bit specialist. Not a bit of it! My colleagues were gushing in their excitement and interest, and could ‘barely wait’ for this afternoon’s email to come out. You think you know people…

Anyway, first of all this week we have Beth Tompkins Bates’ The Making of Black Detroit in the Age of Henry. Oliver Ayers and the author discuss a deeply thought-provoking book that covers a topic of clear importance to the story of black civil rights and 20th-century American history more broadly (no. 1590, with response here).

Next up is the aforementioned Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History by Gregory T. Cushman. Jim Clifford has been talking about this book and recommending it to others since he started reading it, and believes it to be a model for future research in global environmental history (no. 1589).

Then we turn to Leif Dixon’s Practical Predestinarians in England, c. 1590–1640. James Mawdesley thinks the author has produced a book of worth, and has clearly spent much time thinking about printed works which (to be blunt) are sometimes not the easiest for the modern mind to comprehend (no. 1588).

Finally, Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars, and the Persistence of Tradition by J. Arch Getty, which Andy Willimott believes offers a fascinating and highly readable account that will challenge scholars to complicate their understanding of the Russian and Soviet political world (no. 1587).

Oh, and as an extra treat we have also received a response form the author to our recent review of Ignacio de Loyola by Enrique García Hernán, which you can find here.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-black-detroit-guano-predestinarians-and-stalinism/feed/0Digging into Linked Parliamentary Datahttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/digging-into-linked-parliamentary-data-2/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/digging-into-linked-parliamentary-data-2/#commentsWed, 07 May 2014 10:57:44 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4087The IHR is one of the partners on an international project, Digging into Linked Parliamentary Data, to research parliamentary language on an unprecedented scale. We are leading the UK arm of a collaboration with the Netherlands and Canada which will enrich and analyse the parliamentary records of all three countries. The two-year project is funded by the Digging into Data Challenge, which encourages transatlantic teams to use large-scale data analysis to develop new insights into the arts and humanities. We will be working with King’s College, London, the universities of Amsterdam and Toronto, and the History of Parliament Trust.

The nature of the data itself will provide many dimensions for comparison. We will be using Hansard for the UK and Canada, with the data available from 1803 and 1867 respectively; the Dutch data goes back to 1814. This provides three different languages, different types of legislatures, and the very different historical circumstances of the three nations; thematic approches, such as changing attitudes to immigration and left-right political affiliation, should bring out differences and also common threads in three sets of data.

One of the challenges of the project will be to enrich the existing UK and Canadian data to bring it up to the excellent standards already achieved with the Dutch parliamentary record. Once this is done it will allow the project, and future researchers, to interrogate the material in ways previously not possible. For example, because we are adding gender labels to each speaker, it should be possible to ask a simple question like: are women members more likely to be interrupted than their male coutnerparts?

Broadly speaking, types of work on the work on the project are divided between the countries. The linguistics work will be done at Toronto and the technical tools will be developed at Amsterdam. However the project will be using Parliamentary Markup Language, developed at King’s College London for an earlier project in which the IHR was also a partner, and work will be done at King’s and the IHR to enrich the Hansard material that is currently available. Historical case studies will be produced by colleagues at King’s and the History of Parliament but also at Toronto. The project truly is an international collaboration. Read more about Dilipad, and follow our progress, on our project website.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/digging-into-linked-parliamentary-data-2/feed/0New reviews: Enoch Powell, Ottoman travel, slavery, infidelshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-enoch-powell-ottoman-travel-slavery-infidels/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-enoch-powell-ottoman-travel-slavery-infidels/#commentsFri, 02 May 2014 07:38:40 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4052With the impending European polls looming, and issues of migration topical, we have an accidentally topical featured review for you this week, of Camilla Schofield’s Enoch Powell and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. Amy Whipple believes that this is an engaging, thought-provoking book – but also a dense one (no. 1586).

Then we have a review article on slavery in the British Atlantic World by Benjamin Sacks, who enjoys two extraordinarily detailed and exacting studies will undoubtedly prove to be essential reading to any scholar seeking to delve into the dark world of colonial slavery and capitalism: The Price of Emancipation: Slave-Ownership, Compensation and British Society at the End of Slavery by Nicholas Draper, and Slavery and the Enlightenment in the British Atlantic, 1750-1807 by Justin Roberts (no. 1584, with response here).

Next up is Artisans and Travel in the Ottoman Empire by Suraiya Faroqhi, which Gemma Norman thinks should and will become essential reading for students and scholars of Ottoman history (no. 1585).

Finally Catherine O’Donnell believes An Age of Infidels: The Politics of Religious Controversy in the Early United States by Eric R. Schlereth is an insightful and worthy book which makes a useful contribution to our understanding of the early republic (no. 1583).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/05/new-reviews-enoch-powell-ottoman-travel-slavery-infidels/feed/0New reviews: Left-wing Antisemitism, food and war, disunited kingdoms, hostageshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/04/new-reviews-left-wing-antisemitism-food-and-war-disunited-kingdoms-hostages/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/04/new-reviews-left-wing-antisemitism-food-and-war-disunited-kingdoms-hostages/#commentsThu, 24 Apr 2014 12:22:59 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4040Apologies for the absence of reviews last week – your deputy editor was indulging his spiritual side, tramping part of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. Mind you, given that I was staying in hotels and having my luggage ferried by the travel company every day, I did feel a little spiritually inferior when I got to Santiago and came across this fellow.

Anyway, on with the reviews, and we begin with Anti-Semitism and the American Far Left by Stephen H. Norwood. Stan Nadel and the author discuss a book which makes an important contribution to the history of the American left and to debates over anti-Zionism and Antisemitism (no. 1582 , with response here).

Then we have Katarzyna Cwiertka’s edited collection Food and War in Mid-Twentieth-Century East Asia. Mark Swislocki enjoys this compelling set of essays, which exemplifies the promise of food studies (no. 1581).

Next up is Disunited Kingdoms: Peoples and Politics in the British Isles: 1280-1460 by Michael Brown, which Katherine Basanti hails as a significant addition to the promising historiography encompassing late medieval and early modern European, British and Irish socio-political affairs (no. 1580).

Finally we turn to Adam Kosto’s Hostages in the Middle Ages, and Shavana Musa believes the versatility of this book means that it will be of interest to both well-established historians and those new to the field (no. 1579).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/04/new-reviews-left-wing-antisemitism-food-and-war-disunited-kingdoms-hostages/feed/0New reviews: Vikings, Bible and American revolution, Nazi education and winehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/04/new-reviews-vikings-bible-and-american-revolution-nazi-education-and-wine/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/04/new-reviews-vikings-bible-and-american-revolution-nazi-education-and-wine/#commentsThu, 10 Apr 2014 14:31:40 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=4022Another year, another failure by the IHR’s Team Certain Victory to live up to its billing in the University of London annual quiz, though we did at least secure full marks in the history round, so some honour was maintained. I’m not sure the loud declamations from our table that the only reason we were losing is that the questions were ‘insufficiently academic’ won us any friends across the rest of the University mind…

These questions are beneath us…

Anyway, on with our reviews, and we start with another in our occasional series covering historical exhibitions. Simon Trafford finds the British Museum’s Vikings: Life and Legend to be a spectacular and unmissable exposition of Scandinavian early medieval culture, but one constantly troubled by an uncertainty about its audience and purpose (no. 1578).

Next up is Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution by James P. Byrd, which Benjamin Guyer believes will be foundational for all future studies of the Bible and the American Revolution (no. 1577).

Then we turn to Anne C. Nagel’s Hitlers Bildungsreformer: Das Reichsministerium für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung 1934-1945. Helen Roche recommends an enlightening and extremely well-written book, as well as a ground-breaking study of one of the Third Reich’s key institutions (no. 1576).

Finally, we have The Politics of Wine in Britain by Charles Ludington, and David Gutzke reviews an interesting, thought-provoking book, with a thesis that often goes beyond its quite thin evidence (no. 1575).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/04/new-reviews-vikings-bible-and-american-revolution-nazi-education-and-wine/feed/0New reviews: French in London, employees, the Irish Question and food supplyhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/04/new-reviews-french-in-london-employees-the-irish-question-and-food-supply/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/04/new-reviews-french-in-london-employees-the-irish-question-and-food-supply/#commentsThu, 03 Apr 2014 11:55:01 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3983I’m always receptive to feedback (this is the sort of foolish statement that unleashes a barrage of abuse and ends with me weeping in a corner), and as a sharp-eyed reader had pointed out a couple of weeks ago that all the reviews we’d published that week had (co-incidentally) been on British history, I just wondered whether anyone else had suggestions for areas we don’t cover as much as we ought? Don’t think I won’t notice if it turns out that the gaps in our coverage can only really be filled by reviews of your own forthcoming masterpieces…

Then we turn to Jean-Christian Vinel’s The Employee: A Political History, which Jefferson Cowie believes invigorates the stale paradigms of labor history and brings new perspectives and intellectual energy to the subject (no. 1573).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/04/new-reviews-french-in-london-employees-the-irish-question-and-food-supply/feed/0New reviews: Paper war, Ford Foundation, British colonialism and Ignacio de Loyolahttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/new-reviews-paper-war-ford-foundation-british-colonialism-and-ignacio-de-loyola/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/new-reviews-paper-war-ford-foundation-british-colonialism-and-ignacio-de-loyola/#commentsThu, 27 Mar 2014 16:31:38 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3941We’re a little bit rushed in the IHR Digital office today, as me and my esteemed colleague Jonathan Blaney of BHO fame are giving talks this afternoon to visiting students from Northwestern University. It’s always an intimidating experience being on the same bill as Jonathan, but more than ever this week, as after a triumphant appearance at the Research Libraries and Research Open Day his twitter-stream was deluged with ‘Agree with Blaney’ comments. He’s now had this inscribed on a sign above his desk, and the rest of us are starting to worry…

‘I agree with Blaney’

Anyway, on to the reviews, and we begin with The Anglo-American Paper War: Debates about the New Republic, 1800–1825 by Joseph Eaton. Thomas Rodgers and the author discuss a study which firmly locates the development of the United States in its international context (no. 1570, with response here).

Then we turn to Top Down: the Ford Foundation, Black Power and the Reinvention of Racial Liberalism by Karen Ferguson. Fabio Rojas recommends an account that clearly situates the Ford Foundation’s position in mid 20th-century social politics (no. 1569).

Next up is Jack P. Greene’s Evaluating Empire and Confronting Colonialism in Eighteenth-Century Britain, as Daniel Clinkman assesses a book that probes an important question about the relationship between the imperial centre and peripheries (no. 1568).

Finally Megan Armstrong believes that Ignacio de Loyola by Enrique García Hernán proves that Loyola is one of those historic figures that bears repeated examination (no. 1567).

Safely back from my trip to the dreaming spires, where I had a very receptive / indulgent audience at the Oxford e-Research Centre. Maybe I’ve already bored regular readers with this before, but wandering round the colleges afterwards I was reminded of my first visit there, a few years back, to interview a very eminent historian. When we met, I told him I’d arrived early to have a look round, as I’d never been before. His astonished response was: ‘Never been to Oxford?! Where have you been living your life?’

Anyway, enough of such reminiscences, and on with serious matters. Our featured review this week is of The Battle of Britishness: Migrant Journeys, 1685 to the Present by Tony Kushner. Laurence Brown and the author discuss a book which poses a profound challenge to not only historians, but also contemporary policy-makers and museum practitioners (no. 1566, with response here).

Then we turn to Chaplains in Early Modern England: Patronage, Literature and Religion, edited by Hugh Adlington, Tom Lockwood and Gillian Wright. Nicholas Cranfield enjoys ten thought-provoking essays, which suggest the need to further research the ministry of the Church of England (no. 1565).

Next up is Paul Kleber Monod’s Solomon’s Secret Arts: the Occult in the Age of Enlightenment, which Peter Elmer believes lays impressive foundations for anyone wishing to engage with the broad appeal of occult thinking in England between 1650 and 1800 (no. 1564).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/new-reviews-britishness-chaplains-the-occult-and-the-black-market/feed/0Ursula Bloom’s First World Warhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/ursula-blooms-first-world-war/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/ursula-blooms-first-world-war/#commentsMon, 17 Mar 2014 16:03:31 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3693In a previous post I mentioned an article which analysed the newspaper reporting of the beginning of the First World War. By happenstance I had begun to read the autobiography of the prolific writer Ursula Bloom – Youth at the Gate – which documents the beginning of the war. The author lived in genteel poverty in St Albans (her mother having left her clergyman father) with her mother and younger brother.

HMS Amphion

The family were Daily Mail readers and her opening chapters are smattered with references to that newspaper and the developing international crisis. The first sign of the war, “… was recorded in the Daily Mail of June 29th, 1914, when it gave details of the assassination … we received the news fairly calmly … a passing shock was overcome by the comforting reassuring, ‘Thank God that sort of thing couldn’t happen here.’” Her family continued their plans for a holiday: the Isle of Wight or Great Yarmouth? The latter was chosen as they were Norfolk people, and it was far cheaper. She charts the rising international tensions through her observations and the Daily Mail. Reading her observations there seems to be a generational split: the older people are concerned and shocked, the younger excited, “If something happened, then it happened, and it would be fun to get us all out of our rut”.

Holiday preparations continued with the packing of trunks. The British fleet left Portland and her mother blamed that, “… awful Mr. Winston Churchill … Somebody ought to stop that silly young man …” Bloom notes the invasion of Luxemburg but is more interested in the advertisements in the Daily Mail for 1st and 2nd August (hotels in Brighton, and the Papier Poudré beauty item).

She worked as a cinema pianist in Harpenden for 30/- a week (3d off for the insurance stamp). Her working hours were 5.30 to 10.30 and 2.30 to 10.30 on matinees. On bank holidays she began work at 11am. And so it was, in the last few days of peace, she found herself working on the August bank holiday playing any patriotic tune to applause and whistling. Her work in the cinema shows another developing medium, the use of the newsfilm and the use of slides to convey war news. To keep the patrons of the cinema informed about the latest developments and retain the audience, “On the lamp blacked slides latest news was scratched with one of my hairpins, and it was increasingly exciting”. She also relates the newsfilm Pathe Gazette being shown – with pictures of the reserves being called up and a destroyer putting out to see from Harwich – all accompanied by “violent applause from the twopennies”. Later another slide was scratched and displayed saying that Germany still had not replied to the British ultimatum to which the twopennies booed. Goodness knows what the censors would have said if Bloom had continued imparting war news in this manner.

Bloom also recounts how she scratched slides for the siege and fall of Liege (just like the breaking and rolling news of today). Although the cinema owner did not allow the playing of hymns, considering it sacrilege, she played “Through the night of doubt and sorrow” when the slide announcing the city’s fall was shown. Her decision to play the hymn was right as she earned herself a big box of chocolates.

“We were thrilled with the news that HMS Amphion had sunk the German minelayer Königen Luise in British waters. In wild elation I scratched it on the slide, and rushed to the piano, grabbing the keyboard from Mother waiting to greet the announcement with ‘Rule Britannia’. This was the way to win a war! The scanty house rose and cheered to a man!”

The other action that Bloom recorded on the slides was the naval engagement between HMS Amphion and the Königen Luise. The initial slide recorded the sinking of the German ship and then the next day she had to record the loss of Amphion on “my beastly little slides”, as the ship had struck a mine.

Within days of war being declared her fiancé and brother had joined up. Her fiancé then broke off the engagement. The cinema projectionist also enlisted and the commissioner was called up as he was a reservist. Prices shot up and food was hoarded. Her work at the cinema became harder as she had to manage the venue as well as play the piano, all this within the first few weeks of the war. For the rest of the war Bloom fared just as badly. She was accused of being a spy, her mother died of cancer, she witnessed airship raids, and the arrival of casualties. She did marry and had a son. Her army husband survived the war but not the influenza and so, as the war ended, she was left a widow.

Recent articles mirror some of Bloom’s observations about the war. In History Today there is a piece, The Daily Mail and the First World War, by Adrian Bingham. As well as avid readers of the newspapers, the Bloom family bought the Daily Mail war map for 6d. and pinned it on their wall, though her mother, “… was in a continual dither not knowing where to put the next flag.” Catriona Pennell has also written an article, Believing the Unbelievable: The Myth of the Russians with ‘Snow on Their Boots’ in the United Kingdom, 1914. Bloom narrates, “Lots of talk going around”, including the rumour of the Cossacks passing though Harpenden station on darkened trains that had been recognized by, “their fur caps and some had the snow of Siberia still on them!”

And finally, the IHR’s Anglo-American conference for 2014 is entitled The Great War at Home which also covers some of the issues raised by Bloom.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/ursula-blooms-first-world-war/feed/0New reviews: Virginia governors, American eugenics, religion & economics and medieval Rouenhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/new-reviews-virginia-governors-american-eugenics-religion-economics-and-medieval-rouen/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/new-reviews-virginia-governors-american-eugenics-religion-economics-and-medieval-rouen/#commentsThu, 13 Mar 2014 12:19:56 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3812Before I forget / get distracted, my colleagues at British History Online have asked me to bring this opportunity to your attention (http://www.history.ac.uk/news/2014-03-12/academic-advisory-board-member-british-history-online) – have a look, and if you fancy getting involved as an Academic Advisory Board member then either reply to british-history@sas.ac.uk OR feel free to drop me a line.

On a much more trivial note, I have been invited to take part in the Future of Editing seminar, and will be in Oxford tomorrow at lunchtime talking about Reviews if anyone of you are free and interested. Full details are here (http://bdlssblog.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/), but please don’t look at the poster too closely, except as a warning against taking selfies in the dark…

Ok, finally, back to what you actually signed up for, and this week we’ve got a nice varied crop for you. First up is James Corbett David’s Dunmore’s New World: The Extraordinary Life of a Royal Governor in Revolutionary America, as Stephen Conway reviews a book which seeks to introduce us to a Dunmore who was more than a controversial governor of Virginia (no. 1562, with response here).

Then Erika Dyck hails a welcome addition to the growing field of literature on the history of eugenics, as she takes on Framing the Moron: the Social Construction of Feeble-Mindedness in the American Eugenic Era by Gerald V. O’Brien (no. 1561, with response here).

Next up is God, Duty and Community in English Economic Life, 1660-1720 by Brodie Waddell. Jennifer Bishop believes that by eloquently challenging older assumptions, and arguing for a more nuanced approach, this book stands as a useful introduction to the vibrancy of economic life in early modern England (no. 1560).

Finally we have Leonie Hicks and Elma Brenner’s edited collection Society and Culture in Medieval Rouen, 911-1300 which Benjamin Pohl praises as being a well-structured volume which is both informative and innovative in its approach (no. 1559).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/new-reviews-virginia-governors-american-eugenics-religion-economics-and-medieval-rouen/feed/0New reviews: Anti-Judaism, American theology, US-Habsburg relations and advertisinghttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/new-reviews-anti-judaism-american-theology-us-habsburg-relations-and-advertising/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/new-reviews-anti-judaism-american-theology-us-habsburg-relations-and-advertising/#commentsThu, 06 Mar 2014 11:52:19 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3753All manner of excitement last week at the IHR, with the prestigious Gerald Aylmer Seminar receiving a number of uninvited guests, as student protestors were diverted from their occupation of the Vice-Chancellor’s offices by the lure of the post-seminar sandwiches. The stern intervention of our events officer saw them off, but I think there’s a lesson here for any university seeking to deal with unwelcome demonstrations – no matter how righteous the cause, students will always prioritise free food…

Back to more serious matters, and this week’s reviews. We begin with Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition by David Nirenberg, which Christopher Smith believes represents a scholarly feat few writers could hope to match, engagingly tracking the history of how influential thinkers negatively interpreted Judaism to better understand their own religions and society (no. 1558).

Then we turn to Annette Aubert’s The German Roots of Nineteenth-Century American Theology. Daniel Ritchie and the author discuss a work which should be eagerly read by all modern religious historians with an interest in the development of Reformed theology in the United States (no. 1557, with response here).

Next up is Sovereignty Transformed: U.S.-Habsburg Relations from 1815 to the Paris Peace Conference by Nicole M. Phelps, found by Stephen Tuffnell to be a highly calibrated examination worthy of a place on the shelves of European and American historians alike (no. 1556).

Finally Peter Gurney reviews Hard Sell: Advertising, Affluence and Transatlantic Relations, c1951-69 by Sean Nixon. His view is that despite its valuable insights in the end this book, like many of the commodities it considers, promises more than it delivers (no. 1555).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/new-reviews-anti-judaism-american-theology-us-habsburg-relations-and-advertising/feed/0British History Online: final photo competitionhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/british-history-online-final-photo-competition/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/british-history-online-final-photo-competition/#commentsTue, 04 Mar 2014 09:07:34 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3740Over the past year we have been running a monthly British History Online photo competition. All those photos added to our Flickr group in the previous month have been entered into a pool and scrutinised by my judicious and sharp-eyed colleagues in IHR Digital. I then aggregated all the votes to produce a shortlist, which was then further voted upon by British History Online’s academic advisory group.

This month we had two runners-up, in no particular order. One was Fountains Abbey by a veteran of the photo competition, Bill Tennent, the frantic-photographer:

This kind of geometrical, receding composition is a tricky one for any photographer and Bill has done a great job of giving us a sense of depth and space while keeping everything in balance. I also like the somewhat eerie bright green walls and column bases.

Almost everything we can see in this photograph is, or appears to be, stone – except that out-of-place window, with the light streaming through. Particularly evocative are the empty coffins, perhaps brought from elsewhere, their contents presumably scattered or reburied.

who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he is to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes, or whither they are to be scattered?

Thomas Browne, Hydrotaphia, Urn Burial

The prize is that the winning photo has the glory of appearing on our British History Online homepage for a month. Our last winner, now in that prestigious position, is The Paris House at Woburn, by Jason Ballard:

The Paris House, although clearly in the English style, was built in Paris for an international exhibition on architecture held in 1878. It was designed by Gilbert Redgrave and was actually prefabricated and constructed on the site – although it is a bit more elegant than the prefabricated classrooms of my school days. It now stands in Woburn Park, and Jason has caught the character of the house and its surroundings beautifully, including the quintessentially English greens of a country that receives a healthy amount of rainfall.

It is appropriate (although entirely coincidental) that the house stands on the Duke of Bedford’s estate, because he liked it so much he had it shipped to England. The Institute of Historical Research (and the entire central University of London) also stands on estates owned by the dukes of Bedford. Most of the roads around our offices are named after members of the family: Russell Square, Woburn Place, Malet Street, Bedford Square…

We’ve very much enjoyed judging the photo competition over the past year, and we’d like to thank everyone who contributed photos to the group. Anyone is welcome to continue adding to the Flickr group, if they’d like to.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/03/british-history-online-final-photo-competition/feed/0New reviews: Scotland, flappers, slave trade and queenshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/new-reviews-scotland-flappers-slave-trade-and-queens/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/new-reviews-scotland-flappers-slave-trade-and-queens/#commentsThu, 27 Feb 2014 13:32:56 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3720With each week seeing a new series of claims and counter-claims about the viability of an independent Scotland, now seems an appropriate time for us to review a new book by Michael Fry, a self-declared former Scottish Conservative now supporting the nationalist position. Ian Donnachie believes A New Race of Men: Scotland 1815-1914 is in the tradition of scholarly, thoughtful, popular history and seems likely to command a wide audience (no. 1552).

Elsewhere, Eloise Moss and Lucy Bland discuss Modern Women on Trial: Sexual Transgression in the Age of the Flapper which shows how the historiography on women’s sexuality in inter-war Britain has progressed during the last two decades (no. 1554, with response here).

Then we turn to Crossings: Africa, the Americas and the Atlantic Slave Trade by James Walvin, which Matthew Mitchell finds a highly coherent account that nevertheless manages to convey a satisfyingly complex view of its subject (no. 1553).

Finally Estelle Paranque thinks that the strength of The Name of a Queen: William Fleetwood’s Itinerarium ad Windsor by Charles Beem and Dennis Moore is that it highlights and encapsulates the concerns and hopes that represented the power of a queen during the early modern period (no. 1551).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/new-reviews-scotland-flappers-slave-trade-and-queens/feed/0Bibliography of British and Irish History updatedhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated-8/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated-8/#commentsThu, 27 Feb 2014 09:14:21 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3702

The library, Trinity College Dublin. Eighteenth-century watercolour by James Malton

An update to the Bibliography of British and Irish History was published on 26 February. Over 4,000 new records have been added; over half of these are for publications of 2013-14. Some 700 new records relate to Irish history while 186 deal with the history of London.

We are pleased to welcome a new section editor to our team, Dr Elaine Murphy of Plymouth University, who will handle material on Irish history, 1640-1800. We now have three editors helping us to deal with Irish history; Dr Beth Hartland (Ireland before 1640) and Dr Marie Coleman (Ireland since 1800) complete our Irish history team.

There have also been some improvements to the metrics; we continue to welcome your feedback on these.

We expect to release the next update in June. You can always find out more about the Bibliography at http://www.history.ac.uk/projects/bbih or, if you already have access to the Bibliography, you can sign up for email alerts so as to be notified each time the Bibliography is updated with records on a subject or subjects of your choice.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated-8/feed/0Recent articles on the First World Warhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/recent-articles-on-the-first-world-war/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/recent-articles-on-the-first-world-war/#commentsMon, 24 Feb 2014 10:45:10 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3560It is with some trepidation that I launch into a post on the First World War. There has been a spat between government ministers and historians about the myths/realities/teaching of the war and already some commentators are arguing against the commemoration of the war. The What ifs have also begun, with arguments for and against Britain’s involvement in the war.

To see what academics are researching and writing about today, I’ve noted a few First World War articles that interested me and I hope interest readers.

The first article begins at the beginning, or a few weeks before, with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Adam James Bones in, British National Dailies and the Outbreak of War in 19141, explores the press and their portrayal of how Britain entered the conflict from the reaction to the Archduke’s assassination (sympathetic); the impact of foreign embassies on press reporting (especially from the Germans and Austrians); and the reporting, reactions and forecasts of the outcome of the Austrian Ultimatum. He also examines the link between politicians and the press, especially between Grey and the Fleet Street editors.

For all Britain’s reputation as an animal-loving nation, the next article, The Dog Fancy at War: Breeds, Breeding, and Britishness, 1914-1918 2 by Philip Howell, may cause pause for thought. He discusses the impact of the war and the popularity (or loss of popularity) for some dog breeds such as the dachshund. Even the dog breeder was seen as unpatriotic – dog breeding was seen as a luxury and as a waste of food.

“Next day the German sausage was re-named breakfast sausage, which it has been called ever since, and the Frankenfurters disappeared. They thought all Germans should be pushed out of this country, good and bad alike. A woman who went out leading a little dachshund, had it stoned to death on the pavement, for there was no stemming this ugly tide of racial hatred to which the sinking of the Lusitania had given rise.” 3

On a lighter note and still away from the trenches, Krista Cowman looks at the entertainments for the off-duty soldier in, Touring behind the lines: British soldiers in French towns and cities during the Great War 4. She makes the point that, for many, the war was also the first occasion a soldier visited a foreign country. Drawing on letters, diaries and memoirs, she considers how men responded to the new experiences they found in French towns, exploring everyday and mundane activities such as shopping, dining, cinema and theatre and of course the inevitable visit to a prostitute.

Continuing the entertainment theme, More than a Luxury: Australian Soldiers as Entertainers and Audiences in the First World War 5 by Amanda Laugesen discusses the crucial importance of live entertainment to soldiers on the Western Front – ‘something more than a luxury—they are a necessity’ as an Australian trench newspaper asserted. It also examines entertainment and audience experiences in order to reveal something about soldiers’ interaction with popular culture, as well as the trench culture shared by soldiers.

Continuing the veterans theme there is Michael Hammond’s, War Relic and Forgotten Man: Richard Barthelmess as Celluloid Veteran in Hollywood 1922-1933 8 which explores the role of popular Hollywood film culture in the construction and commemoration of the war using the films of actor Barthelmess. In The Enchanted Cottage (1924) he plays a disfigured veteran who finds love, and in Heroes for Sale (1933), set during the Depression, he portrays a recovering addict veteran struggling in civilian life.

The International Bibliography of Humanism and the Renaissance (IBHR), formerly published by Librairie Droz as Bibliographie Internationale de l’Humanisme et de la Renaissance, has been working since 1965 to identify all publications relating to humanism and the Renaissance, interpreted in a broad sense, in terms of both content and chronology. The bibliography will henceforth be published by Brepols, who already publish the International Medieval Bibliography and the Bibliography of British and Irish History (the latter a joint project with the Royal Historical Society and IHR Digital).

In the course of this year the IBHR will undergo major changes and will be relaunched on Brepols’ online platform, Brepolis. Its new search interface will be similar to the one used across all Brepols bibliographic databases and will therefore benefit from the advanced search technologies embedded in them. New features will include linking with online full text where available, and the export of bibliographic references using a variety of software packages (EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero).

In conjunction with these developments, IBHR is seeking support from scholars in relevant fields with a view to extending the coverage provided by the bibliography. The editors are looking for contributors who will identify and index monographs and articles in both journals and books, following a standard citation format, and assigning appropriate keywords, using the IBHR online input platform. Contributors will be remunerated according to the number of complete items submitted.

Contributors should possess:

Access to a research library with strong holdings in European history of the 16th-17th centuries.

A Master’s or doctoral degree in early modern European history or a related subject.

Fluency in English, French, German, Spanish, or Italian. Passive knowledge of other European
languages will be considered an asset.

Ability and commitment to deliver one hundred citations each year, or more.

If you are interested in becoming a contributor, the publishers would like to hear from you. Enquiries should be made to Chris VandenBorre, Publishing Manager.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/international-bibliography-of-humanism-and-the-renaissance-seeks-contributors/feed/0New reviews: Banishment, broadcasting, China vs Japan and global intellectual historyhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/new-reviews-banishment-broadcasting-china-vs-japan-and-global-intellectual-history/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/new-reviews-banishment-broadcasting-china-vs-japan-and-global-intellectual-history/#commentsThu, 20 Feb 2014 12:37:15 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3662Your deputy editor has returned this week from an ill-fated long weekend in Dorset, where apocalyptic weather conditions turned the drive from London into an eight-hour odyssey, and filled (we saw at least two) the fields with dead cows. And I didn’t get my promised Dorset Knobs and Vinney…

Still, my suffering pales into comparison with that endured by the subjects of our featured book, Banishment in the Early Atlantic World: Convicts, Rebels and Slaves, by Gwenda Morgan, Peter Rushton. Aaron Fogleman and the authors discuss a book full of highlights, and which raises a number of valuable questions for future study (no. 1550, with response here).

Next up, we have Simon Potter’s Broadcasting Empire: The BBC and the British World, 1922-1970, as Brett Bebber reviews a staggering achievement, worthy of attention by scholars of popular culture and British imperialism, in addition to those interested in the business of radio and television (no. 1549).

Then we turn to China’s War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival by Rana Mitter. For Aaron Moore, this book provides a powerful, readable, and accessible account of the conflict in China (no. 1548).

Finally Julia McClure believes that Global Intellectual History (edited by Samuel Moyn and Andrew Sartori) contributes to the development of global history by deepening our awareness of the politics, epistemologies, and pluralities of global concepts (no. 1547).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/new-reviews-banishment-broadcasting-china-vs-japan-and-global-intellectual-history/feed/0New reviews: Heresy, revisionism, modernity and infanticidehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/new-reviews-heresy-revisionism-modernity-and-infanticide/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/new-reviews-heresy-revisionism-modernity-and-infanticide/#commentsThu, 13 Feb 2014 12:39:31 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3616A real treat for medievalists this week, as eminent academics Pete Biller and R. I. Moore engage in a full and frank discussion of the latter’s The War on Heresy: Faith and Power in Medieval Europe – a must-read! (no. 1546, with response here).

Next up, we have Revisionist Histories by Marnie Hughes-Warrington, which Jamie Melrose believes contains a wealth of examples of history’s plasticity, without outlining any means to establish the rules of these morphing games (no. 1545, with response here).

Then we turn to David Kynaston’s Modernity Britain: Opening the Box, 1957-1959. Malin Dahlstrom thinks that while readable, this volume fails to justify the author’s claim that the period in question marked a turning point in post-war British history (no. 1544).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/new-reviews-heresy-revisionism-modernity-and-infanticide/feed/0Announcing BUDDAH – Big UK Domain Data for the Arts and Humanitieshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/announcing-buddah/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/announcing-buddah/#commentsThu, 13 Feb 2014 09:45:29 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3601We are delighted to have been awarded AHRC funding for a new research project, ‘Big UK Domain Data for the Arts and Humanities‘. BUDDAH aims to transform the way in which researchers in the arts and humanities engage with the archived web, focusing on data derived from the UK web domain crawl for the period 1996-2013. Web archives are an increasingly important resource for arts and humanities researchers, yet we have neither the expertise nor the tools to use them effectively. Both the data itself, totalling approximately 65 terabytes and constituting many billions of words, and the process of collection are poorly understood, and it is possible only to draw the broadest of conclusions from current analytical analysis.

A key objective of the project will be to develop a theoretical and methodological framework within which to study this data, which will be applicable to the much larger on-going UK domain crawl, as well as in other national contexts. Researchers will work with developers at the British Library to co-produce tools which will support their requirements, testing different methods and approaches. In addition, a major study of the history of UK web space from 1996 to 2013 will be complemented by a series of small research projects from a range of disciplines, for example contemporary history, literature, gender studies and material culture.

I got an email this morning from one of the readers of British History Online. It was from a 90-year-old lady in South Africa who expressed her delight at being able to read about her childhood home in Surrey. She had wanted to express her gratitude for having a resource like British History Online that evoked memories from the better part of a lifetime ago, from thousands of miles away.

This email was the first piece of feedback from a reader I’d received since taking over a few weeks ago as the new Project Manager. I’d like to think it will all be that easy – perusing nice letters from satisfied users of our collection. But I’ve learned quickly that there’s plenty of work to be done.

Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Adam Crymble. Like many of you, I fancy myself a bit of a historian, be that amateur or professional. I’ve done some traditional historical work, both as a family history researcher and in an academic setting teaching Early Modern British history at King’s College London (where I did my PhD in 18th century British history). And I’ve also had a fair bit of experience building websites over the years. I’m hoping to combine those interests to continue to bring a great and expanding set of resources to you that you can trust, via the British History Online website.

Stepping into a project that’s been running for more than a decade can be a bit daunting. There’s already so much content here that I need to get my head around. So many great ideas that have already been implemented. But there’s also places we can grow. The big task for this year is to help the rest of the team put together a new website to hold our content. The web has changed a lot in the last few years, and we’re excited about the possibilities of making the website even easier to use and make the content even easier to find.

We’re also excited about a number of new partnerships we’re pursing that we hope will bring even more great historical resources to the web for the first time. I’d like to invite you to get in on the ground floor of that initiative by supporting our collection’s growth, either by subscribing to the site’s premium content (£30) or by making a donation to our digitisation fund.

2014 promises to be a great year for British History Online. I’m pleased to be a part of it, and I’m looking forward to working with you as we build the best collection of British History on the web.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/british-history-online-the-next-ten-years/feed/0Wikipedia: the War of 1812 and Australian sports historyhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/wikipedia-the-war-of-1812-and-australian-sports-history/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/wikipedia-the-war-of-1812-and-australian-sports-history/#commentsFri, 07 Feb 2014 10:46:38 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3496A little while back I attended a course on editing Wikipedia. While not an avid user of the online resource, I do find it useful. It’s excellent for popular culture (mainly of the quiz questions variety); where else can you quickly discover what a Vorlon is? Or what Richard Gere’s middle name is? Or a list of the Eurovision song winners and the points they scored? It’s increasingly useful for place names, historical events and planning of anniversaries and celebrations. I particularly like using Wikipedia for place names as there is a useful link to the Ordnance Survey maps. Wikipedia also provides links to VIAF (and other authority files) which I use for creating person authority files in BBIH.

Painting by Anton Otto Fischer depicting the first victory at sea by USS Constitution over HMS Guerriere.

The best part of the course was the fascinating introduction by Andrew Gray. He described how Wikipedia had developed, its ethos and aims, all to the accompaniment of real-time editing changes being screened in the background.

The training was less successful, not I hasten to add because of the tutor but because of the technology. The Mac notebooks used by the library are not geared up for teaching purposes (the screens are too small and the short cuts I’m used to did not seem to work, at least on my notebook) which meant endless scrolling up and down. The session wasn’t helped by my need for glasses to see the notebook and then take them off to see the overhead screen.

To my surprise the editing format is a little clunky and a bit old-fashioned. I initially made a few miserable and desultory attempts to edit something (and failed). The original idea I had of adding snippets of information and fleshing out some short articles has not come to fruition. I thought it would be easy to dip in and out of articles and edit accordingly while doing my “day job”. I’m afraid it all became too frustrating and irritating. I did spend one determined weekend augmenting some articles and was a little more successful but it was a chore and although I managed most of what I set out to do I don’t think I’ll ever truly master the editing. Happily Wikipedia are developing a better user interface. Perhaps I’ll give it another go!

Enough moaning about my inadequacies and to the real point of this posting – two articles, unsurprisingly, about Wikipedia.

The first featured in a special edition of the Journal of Military History1. The article, by Richard Jensen, examines how the 14,000-word article on the “War of 1812” was worked on by over 2,000 different people, with no overall coordinator or plan. Debates raged as the 1812 article attracted over 3,300 comments by 627 of the most active editors. Interestingly the main dispute in the Wikipedia entry was who actually won the war. Jensen also looks at the sources used by the Wikipedia editors, which mainly rest upon free online sources and popular books, rather than scholarly monographs and articles.

The second article, Wicked Wikipedia? Communities of Practice, the Production of Knowledge and Australian Sport History by Stephen Townsend2et al, analysed 115 Wikipedia articles written about notable Australian sportspeople, revealing a disproportionately large group of high-quality cricket biographies. Upon further investigation it was discovered that a small group of Wikipedians were responsible for writing these articles, showing the influence that dedicated special interest groups can have over the production of knowledge on Wikipedia.

Don Tallon Australian cricketer

Increasingly Wikipedia is being cited in learned and academic books and journals. From anecdotal evidence I’ve come across a review for The Freedom of Speech: The history of an idea, in which the reviewer notes that the introduction contains three referrals to Wikipedia for recent events3.

In Engineers of victory : the problem solvers who turned the tide in the Second World War by Paul Kennedy, the author cites Wikipedia, arguing that for some of his topics he finds that Wikipedia is the best source or one of the best; he is particularly impressed by the articles on the Pacific War. He has 11 Wikipedia pages listed in the digital resources section of his bibliography, and the endnotes refer to a number of pages in very approving terms,though does admit to some which are embarrassing to peruse.

Furthermore, in Norman Davies’ Vanished Kingdoms: The History of half-forgotten Europe, the author offers a robust defence of Wikipedia comparing the entry for Burgundy to, “…old-fashioned printed reference works”. As Davies states, “Analytical studies have shown that Wikipedia, for all its faults, can sometimes match the most prestigious academic brands. It has the virtue of being constantly corrected and updated” 4. One can see his sources using Wikipedia, and other online resources, in his footnotes for Eire5.

Some data scientists and analysts also use Wikipedia to assess rankings of significant people including historical figures. Wikipedia is one of the data sources used, by analysing the pages of more than 800,000 people to measure quantities that should correspond to historical significance. They expect that more significant people will have longer Wikipedia pages than those less notable. Also the Wiki pages of people of higher significance should attract greater readership than those of lower significance.

I’d be interested to know of any other anecdotal evidence or indeed any other articles that have analysed history on Wikipedia.

Also readers might be interested in Andrew Dalby’s The world and Wikipedia: how we are editing reality.

1 Journal of Military History, vol. 76:4, 2012

2 The International Journal of the History of Sport, vol. 30:5, 2013 p. 545-59

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/02/wikipedia-the-war-of-1812-and-australian-sports-history/feed/0New reviews: Churchill’s speeches, universities & empire, Baal’s priests and English lovehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/new-reviews-churchills-speeches-universities-empire-baals-priests-and-english-love/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/new-reviews-churchills-speeches-universities-empire-baals-priests-and-english-love/#commentsThu, 30 Jan 2014 14:59:47 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3486Much discussion today of the trustworthiness, of lack thereof, of different names. In the interest of not alienating sections of our readership, I will have to redact our conclusions, but I would be interested to find out if readers share our irrational prejudices…

Anyway, enough of these witterings, and on with some reviews written by people with very sensible names.

First up, The Roar of the Lion: The Untold Story of Churchill’s World War II Speeches by Richard Toye. Kevin Matthews and the author discuss a valuable addition to the study of Churchill’s wartime premiership (no. 1542).

Then we have Tamson Pietsch’s Empire of Scholars: Universities, Networks and the British Academic World, 1850-1939. Barbara Bush finds this book succeeds in its aim of writing settler universities into the history of British academia (no. 1541).

Next up is Baal’s Priests: The Loyalist Clergy and the English Revolution, by Fiona McCall, and James Mawdesley believes that while the author has done a great service to historians of the 17th century in highlighting the treasures of the Walker archive, this book is not the final word (no. 1540).

Finally, we have Claire Langhamer’s The English in Love: The Intimate Story of an Emotional Revolution. Sally Holloway reviews a hotly anticipated new book, part of a new wave of scholarship on romantic love (no. 1539).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/historical-research-february-2014-vol-87-no-235/feed/0Digging into Linked Parliamentary Datahttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/digging-into-linked-parliamentary-data/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/digging-into-linked-parliamentary-data/#commentsThu, 23 Jan 2014 16:02:42 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3265We were delighted to hear on 15 January that the IHR, along with the universities of Amsterdam and Toronto, King’s College London and the History of Parliament Trust, has been awarded funding by the international Digging into Data Challenge 2013. ‘Digging into Linked Parliamentary Data’ is one of fourteen projects which, over the next two years, will investigate how computational techniques can be applied to ‘big data’ in the humanities and social sciences.

Parliamentary proceedings reflect our history from centuries ago to the present day. They exist in a common format that has survived the test of time, and reflect any event of significance (through times of war and peace, of economic crisis and prosperity). With carefully curated proceedings becoming available in digital form in many countries, new research opportunities arise to analyse this data, on an unprecedented longitudinal scale, and across different nations, cultures and systems of political representation.

Focusing on the UK, Canada and The Netherlands, this project will deliver a common format for encoding parliamentary proceedings (with an initial focus on 1800–yesterday); a joint dataset covering all three jurisdictions; a workbench with a range of tools for the comparative, longitudinal study of parliamentary data; and substantive case studies focusing on migration, left/right ideological polarization and parliamentary language. We hope that comparative analysis of this kind, and the tools to support it, will inform a new approach to the history of parliamentary communication and discourse, and address new research questions.

A project website will be up and running in the next few weeks, so watch this space for more information!

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/digging-into-linked-parliamentary-data/feed/0New reviews: Imperial electors, 1970s Ireland, League of Nations and Nazi culturehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/new-reviews-imperial-electors-1970s-ireland-league-of-nations-and-nazi-culture/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/new-reviews-imperial-electors-1970s-ireland-league-of-nations-and-nazi-culture/#commentsThu, 23 Jan 2014 14:38:01 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3445Thanks to everyone who got back to me about the podcast last week – we’ve already got plans to do more of these, and, as I said, it would be great to have suggestions for suitable interviewees. Do also feel free to get in touch if you fancy yourself, Paxman-like, on the other side of the mike…

Anyway, on with this week’s reviews, and we start with Armin Wolf’s Verwandtschaft – Erbrecht – Königswahlen. Donald Jackman appraises an attempt to solve the enigma of the origin of the imperial college of electors (no. 1538).

Then we have Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s, Diarmaid Ferriter, which Shane Nagle praises as a monumental piece of scholarship that will be a – if not the – standard work on Ireland in the 1970s for many years to come, written by one of Ireland’s premier historians working today (no. 1537).

Next Emily Baughan believes Securing the World Economy. The Reinvention of the League of Nations, 1920-1946 by Patricia Clavin deserves an audience beyond the academy (no. 1536).

Finally we have David B. Dennis’s Inhumanities. Nazi Interpretations of Western Culture, which Helen Roche reviews as a work which demands serious attention (no. 1535).

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/new-reviews-imperial-electors-1970s-ireland-league-of-nations-and-nazi-culture/feed/0History Online update January-March 2014http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/history-online-update-january-march-2014/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/history-online-update-january-march-2014/#commentsTue, 21 Jan 2014 15:47:02 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3311The Institute of Historical Research’s bibliographic update for January to March 2014 is now online. The update can be found at http://www.history.ac.uk/history-online/books/update/all and (for journal articles) http://www.history.ac.uk/history-online/journals/update/all.

History Online provides information about and for historians. It publishes details of university lecturers in the UK and the Republic of Ireland (Teachers), current and past historical research (Theses), digital history projects (Projects), new books and journals from a range of leading publishers (Books, Journals) and sources of funding available for researchers (Grants). The database also provides details of history libraries and collections and digital research tools for historians. It currently holds more than 62,000 records, and new material is added regularly.

Since my sophomore year as an undergraduate, the subject of witchcraft had always fascinated me. My final undergraduate research paper was on witchcraft in the Elizabethan Era. I decided to continue my research on witchcraft into my graduate studies. To this day, I still don’t understand why the history of witchcraft amazes me. It might be because of the stories of accusations, examinations, the psychological approach or the fantasy that a community created. For my MA dissertation, I plan to research about witchcraft during slavery. First, I want to make a connection between witchcraft in Europe and among slaves in the Americas. My research consists of a study of how witchcraft beliefs during the 16th and 17th century transferred to slaves of African descent.

The document type which occurred most frequently was ‘Newspapers’, with the second most common being ‘Books, pamphlets and printed ephemera’. The newspapers were mostly from the British Newspapers 1600–1900 database. Most of the books and pamphlets could be found on other databases such as Witches in Early Modern England; a great resource that I’ve used for research papers. This resource provides different accounts of witch examination and accusations. [http://www.connectedhistories.org/Search_results.aspx?dtf=1500-01-01&dtt=1899-12-31&kw=witchcraft&sr=wi] This doesn’t surprise me because most witch prosecutions and trials were printed in pamphlets. The dates range from the 16th century to the 19th century. However, it was interesting to find that there are more resources in the 18th and the 19th centuries. In the late 17th century, there was a decline in witchcraft prosecutions and trials since there were new judiciary rules in place after the English Civil War. Maybe I should research farther to find out why there was a large portion of witchcraft pamphlets still being publishing in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Connected Histories is a very useful site for resources, and someone had already created connections for witchcraft: [http://www.connectedhistories.org/connection.aspx?c=144]. It’s helpful and provides images from the British Museum website.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/witchcraft-and-connected-histories/feed/0Latest from Reviews in Historyhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/latest-from-reviews-in-history-2/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/latest-from-reviews-in-history-2/#commentsThu, 16 Jan 2014 15:23:00 +0000http://blog.history.ac.uk/?p=3238We have all manner of treats in store for you this week, but before that, a rather London-centric question. The editor of the wonderful Bibliography of British and Irish History, who is a longstanding and long-suffering colleague of mine, claims to be able to walk from Senate House to Waterloo in 12 minutes. A glorious prize awaits for anyone who can beat this and prove it…

Don’t be distracted by this challenge, though, from checking out our FIRST EVER Reviews in History podcast. Daniel Snowman talks to Miranda Seymour (no. 1534) about her new book and her career as a historian, historical novelist and biographer.

Listen to an extract here, and please let me know if you would like to hear more of this sort of thing.

Then we have Hugh Brogan’s review article, Fifty years since Dallas, in which he wades through (no. 1533) a pile of 50th anniversary Kennedy conspiracy theories, contrasting them with the latest piece of genuine scholarship on JFK. To judge from 2013’s newspapers, publishers’ lists, and television, the reading public is still, 50 years after, mesmerised by the assassination and its possible perpetrators.

We move to the period of the second-most celebrated US president of the twentieth century next, as Jonathan Bell and Ira Katznelson discuss (no. 1532, with response here) the latter’s Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time, a rich and enviably learned study of a formative period in the creation of the modern United States.

Finally, we turn to Culture, Faith and Philanthropy: Londoners and Provincial Reform in Early Modern England by Joseph P. Ward. Brodie Waddell believes (no. 1531) this book provides us with a thorough and well-crafted study that demonstrates the importance of metropolitan charity in the social and cultural changes of the early modern period.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/latest-from-reviews-in-history-2/feed/0Latest from ‘Reviews in History’http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/latest-from-reviews-in-history/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/latest-from-reviews-in-history/#commentsThu, 09 Jan 2014 16:24:21 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/?p=3181Happy new year everyone – I hope you all had a good festive period, and that 2014 is panning out well so far. I’m always quite pleased to be back to sobriety / normality (or what passes for it at the University of London) at this time of year – when there’s no expectation of fun, you can’t be disappointed.

Not that there isn’t fun aplenty lurking in this week’s batch of reviews, starting with Peter H. Hansen’s The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment. Dawn Jackson Williams enjoys (no. 1530) a significant contribution to the field, which should be praised for placing the history of mountaineering ‘on belay’.

Next we turn to Indigo Plantations and Science in Colonial India by Prakash Kumar, as J. N. Sinha and the author discuss (no. 1529, with response here) a well written, and impressively readable book, meticulously researched and based on a wide variety of sources skilfully used in the narrative. This is the first full- fledged independent work on the subject concerning India, and is sure to stimulate interest in the subject and prove a reference work for future research on indigo in India.

Then we have Richard Cust’s Charles I and the Aristocracy, 1625-1642, which Christopher Thompson finds (no. 1528) to be a study of major importance, which asks new questions, poses novel challenges and suggests positive answers of a challenging and comprehensive nature. By any standards, it is a study of major importance.

Finally Imaobong Umoren believes (no. 1527) Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs Robeson (by Barbara Ransby) should appeal to the general and specialist reader and is an excellent example of the benefits and beauty of biography at its best. In her second biography Ransby’s stylish skills chronicling the life, times and ideas of Robeson are again revealed.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/latest-from-reviews-in-history/feed/0British History Online: End of an Erahttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/british-history-online-end-of-an-era/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/british-history-online-end-of-an-era/#commentsMon, 06 Jan 2014 10:21:44 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/?p=2758

Nicholas Gemini, Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0

In November, behind the scenes, there was an important change at the Institute. Bruce Tate, the Manager of British History Online, left the project after 11 years. You may know that this summer BHO celebrated 10 years of operation, from which you will see that Bruce was here before the site itself, developing the technical architecture of BHO from scratch.

Other people did play important roles in BHO as it grew larger and more complex, particularly our former colleague Peter Webster, who was Editorial Controller from 2005 until 2012 and contributed a great deal. But Bruce’s work ensured that BHO developed as a robust site, able to sustain the millions of monthly pageviews it went on to attract. Since BHO also has subscribers (only £30 a year, if you’d like to sign up) it is also essential that the site is always available whenever people need to use it. Bruce’s meticulous approach to project planning and technical implementation have made that possible. It’s a tribute to Bruce’s capabilities that the rest of us never worried about whether BHO had gone offline or crashed, because it never did.

Bruce’s main character flaw is that he is a season ticket holder at Chelsea. Chelsea have had 10 managers in the time that BHO has had one, proving once again that short-termism achieves little. We plan to build on the excellent work Bruce has done by updating and improving the site over the next 10 years; we thank him for his sterling contribution and wish him well for the future.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2014/01/british-history-online-end-of-an-era/feed/0Historical Research – November 2013 (vol. 86, no. 234)http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/11/historical-research-november-2013-vol-86-no-234/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/11/historical-research-november-2013-vol-86-no-234/#commentsTue, 05 Nov 2013 15:59:24 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/?p=2695The latest issue of Historical Research (vol. 86, no. 234) is now available, and includes the following articles:

Stormont’s response to American racial segregation in Northern Ireland during the Second World War by Simon Topping (FREE ACCESS)

Bishops and deans: London and the province of Canterbury in the twelfth century by D. P. Johnson

Reintroducing the emperor and repositioning the city republics in the ‘republican’ thought of the rhetorician Boncompagno da Signa by Gianluca Raccagni

Some readers may already know the Mechanical Curator. This is a Tumblr account created by the British Library. The curator posts an image hourly, taken at random from the British Library’s digitised collections of books from the 17th to the 19th century.

I knew about the Mechanical Curator but when I went to a meeting at the BL last week James announced a recent update I didn’t know about. The curator now posts a link to the book from which the image is taken. The great thing about this is that, as James said, it opens up this little-known digitised collection to a wider public (the collection is integrated into the BL’s catalogue, which means that it’s harder to find than a discrete collection might be).

Best of all, the images are licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication, which means that anyone is free to re-use these images for any purpose.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/11/the-mechanical-curator/feed/0Bibliography of British and Irish History updatedhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/10/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/10/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated/#commentsTue, 15 Oct 2013 20:08:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/10/15/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated/BBIH was updated on 14 October with 4,735 new records, bringing the overall total to nearly 540,000. Over 500 of the new records relate to Irish history, with 236 covering the history of London, including information on recently completed theses on London history provided by the Centre for Metropolitan History.

Included in this update is a new “Metrics” feature, which offers a new way of viewing the data contained in the Bibliography. Users can quickly see how the publications of a particular author are distributed by subject or over time, for example; similar analyses are available for particular journals or particular subjects. The version available at the moment is a beta version, devised by Brepols on the basis of the metrics component of the International Medieval Bibliography. You can learn more on our FAQ page. We welcome feedback and comment using our feedback form, or by email.

We plan to release the next update in February 2014. May we remind you that, if you sign up for email alerts on subjects that interest you, you will receive an email as soon as BBIH is updated with records that match your registered searches? A video tutorial on email alerts is available.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/10/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated/feed/0Peter Salt on RCHME, Cambridgeshirehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/07/peter-salt-on-rchme-cambridgeshire/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/07/peter-salt-on-rchme-cambridgeshire/#commentsFri, 19 Jul 2013 16:29:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/07/19/peter-salt-on-rchme-cambridgeshire/British History Online has now completed its digitisation of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England series; all volumes are now freely available to read online. The following post originally appeared on our British History Online blog.Of the last volumes published, three related to Cambridgeshire. Our own Cambridgeshire man, Peter Salt, Editor of the Bibliography of British and Irish History, kindly agreed to write a blog post about the City of Cambridge volume. Peter writes:

When the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments’ inventory of the city of Cambridge was published in 1959 in two substantial volumes with a separate container of plans,1 they were priced at the princely sum of five guineas (£5.25). They were out of print by the time that I paid £52.00 for my copy about 25 years later. I was conscious at the time that this was virtually ten times the original selling price but I reasoned to myself that they would never be cheaper. So I greet the appearance of the Cambridge inventory in British History Online with mixed feelings – freely accessible online publication, to the high standards associated with British History Online, is a great boon to scholarship but may reduce demand for the printed volumes and therefore may have devalued my copy!

Naturally, College and University buildings fill most of the Cambridge inventory. However, it also covers the growth of the town. Furthermore, from 1946 the Commissioners were empowered not only to make an inventory of ‘Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions’ predating the eighteenth century, as had been done before World War II, but also to describe ‘such further Monuments and Constructions subsequent to’ 1714 ‘as may seem in your discretion to be worthy of mention’.2 In the Cambridge inventory, as in the preceding one covering Dorset, this resulted in the adoption of an 1850 cut-off date3and, for buildings that could be identified as being earlier than 1850, little or no selection seems to have been applied in practice. Furthermore, as the preface observed, ‘the first half of the 19th century’ was ‘a period of notable urban development in Cambridge’.4 The result was that the volumes cover not only internationally known monuments such as King’s College Chapel, but also include some quite modest terraced houses – so modest, indeed, as to include the house in which I lived from 1991 to 2005, which had been built (it was suggested) for the “outside staff” of the larger houses in the same development.5

Such houses were sometimes recorded with almost as much care as the major monuments – the development of which my house formed a part is illustrated by a layout diagram and by internal plans of representative houses, the latter presented alongside plans of similar houses to facilitate comparison. Even so, there were times when the surveyors were virtually unable to find anything to say: after they had diplomatically described early nineteenth-century houses in Brunswick Walk as ‘pleasant in their simplicity and lack of ostentation’, they were reduced to reporting that ‘Willow Place and Causeway Passage … are even less distinguished than the foregoing’.6 Nonetheless, the recording and comparison of small terraced houses that were then little more than one hundred years old would have been ground-breaking at the time.

In some cases the survey recorded buildings that were soon to be demolished. Indeed, Willow Place and Causeway Passage have largely vanished. That small late-Georgian terraced houses should fall victim to 1960s and 1970s improvements is not surprising (they had been assessed in 1950 as “fourth class” and although, if they had lasted a few years longer, they might well have been refurbished and extended as desirable pieds à terre, it has to be said that our favourable view of Georgian domestic architecture rests in part on the destruction of its meanest specimens). Perhaps more surprising in a town that trades on its “heritage” is the loss of the ‘good brick front of 1727′ belonging to the Central Hotel on Peas Hill, where Pepys was supposed to have ‘drank pretty hard’ in 1660, and one of the secular buildings deemed by the Commissioners to be ‘especially worthy of preservation’,7 but replaced in 1960-2 by a hostel for King’s College.

As Professor Chris Dyer observed in his post in this blog on the Northamptonshire volumes, the Royal Commission’s post-war inventory volumes ‘marked a high point’ in its work that was not sustained. Since 1984 the Commission and English Heritage (into which the Commission was incorporated in 1999) have continued to record and to analyze, but have published the results in thematic volumes, rather than in parish by parish (or town by town) inventories. Theforeword to the last inventory volume, published in 1984, admitted that ‘the creation of an adequately researched and assessed inventory of England’s archaeological and architectural heritage is now accepted … as a complex and infinite task’ (my emphasis). Indeed, what seems ‘adequately researched and assessed’ to one generation may disappoint the next one. Now that Causeway Passage has vanished from the map we might well wish that the inventory had gone into a bit more detail. And, just as 1714 came to seem, after World War II, too remote an end date for the survey, resulting in an expansion of the Commissioners’ remit, the 1850 cut off chosen for the Cambridge volumes will seem too remote to those who want to study Cambridge’s later nineteenth-century growth. In practice, though, we must be grateful for what was achieved, and (notwithstanding the potential decline in the value of my printed copy) the online publication of the inventories is very much to be welcomed.

1 All footnote references are to the city of Cambridge inventory. The volumes were continuously paginated and are treated as a single entity by British History Online.

‘They seem to have all died out’: witches and witchcraft in Lark Rise to Candleford and the English countryside, c.1830–1930. Thomas Waters

Flora Thompson’s account of the English countryside during the 1880s–1890s – Lark Rise to Candleford – continues to be an important source for rural history. In that text the protagonist’s mother says that witches had ‘all died out’, and none had been known in her generation. The informants of late Victorian folklorists sometimes made similar remarks. Historians have taken such statements about witchcraft being a thing of the past at face value, inferring from them that plebeian concern about its influence was disappearing during the final decades of the nineteenth century. This article uses evidence from the English south midlands, and insights provided by anthropological studies of sorcery, to suggest an alternative interpretation. Rather than being a sincere statement of belief, assertions that witches had ‘all died out’ were part of a strategy to avoid speaking about a dreaded subject. Such pains were taken because it was believed that talking about witchcraft was a dangerous activity that would lead to the bewitchment of anyone with a loose tongue.

Pressing the French and defending the Palmerstonian line: Lord William Hervey and The Times, 1846–8. Laurence Guymer

Remembering usurpation: the common lawyers, Reformation narratives and the prerogative, 1578–1616. David Chan Smith

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/07/historical-research-new-early-view-articles/feed/0Bibliography of British and Irish History updatedhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/07/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated-2/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/07/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated-2/#commentsTue, 02 Jul 2013 12:14:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/07/02/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated-2/BBIH has been updated with 5,831 new records, bringing the overall total to over 534,000. Nearly 3,600 of the new records describe books and articles published in 2012-13; over 700 of them relate to Irish history and 266 of them concern the history of London.

We are delighted to welcome two new academic section editors to our team: Dr Julie Barrau, of the University of East Anglia, editor for England, 1066-1500, and Dr Marie Coleman, of Queen’s University Belfast, editor for Ireland since 1800. Dr Barrau succeeds the long-serving Professor Elisabeth Van Houts, for whose contribution to BBIH we are very grateful. Dr Coleman’s appointment reflects our decision to divide responsibility for Ireland since 1640 into two sections, in the light of the increasing number of publications on Irish history that we are handling. A full list of section editors is available here.

We are sorry that links from the detailed record display to the British Library Direct ordering service no longer lead to a completed order form for the appropriate article. Instead, you are now taken to the home page of the new British Library Document Supply Service, where you need to search again for the article that you wish to order. Also, we regret that the presence of the link is no longer a reliable guide to the availability of the article through British Library Document Supply. We are discussing with the British Library how our links can be improved and we hope to be able to offer better links to British Library document ordering in our next update.

We plan to publish the next update in October. If you register for email alerts on searches of interest to you, you will receive an email as soon as the bibliography is updated with records that match your registered searches. A video tutorial on email alerts is available.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/07/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated-2/feed/0Latest update to Local History internet siteshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/06/latest-update-to-local-history-internet-sites/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/06/latest-update-to-local-history-internet-sites/#commentsThu, 13 Jun 2013 13:43:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/06/13/latest-update-to-local-history-internet-sites/The latest update to the local history internet sites guide was published in the November 2012 issue of the Local Historian [1]. This very useful guide, that updates previous issues and a booklet, covers local history and genealogical sites and resources. The booklet was reviewed in a previous blog.

While aimed at the local/amateur historian, the update is of use to the academic historian, listing such resources as the Cabot Roll 1496-1499, which provides links to high-resolution copies of the out-of-copyright publication, consisting of facsimiles, Latin transcriptions and English-language translations of the enrolled customs accounts for the port of Bristol. There is also the Middle English Compendium, offering easy access to three major Middle English resources.

Some sites have longer reviews, notably, Coal Mining Resource Centre which is especially strong on mining accidents and those who died in them; North-East Diary 1939-1945 is a labour of love, listing day-by-day wartime activities. A quick search found for Friday 12th July 1940, “Many IBs [incendiary bombs] dropped in region of Bridgehill near Consett. A cow was killed, a house was slightly damaged by fire”. Also reviewed is the Gaelic /English website containing over, 30,000 oral recordings from the 1930s onwards, Tobar an Dualchais.

Thanks and congratulations to the compiler of these excellent updates, Jacquelené Fillmore for her dedication and patience.

[1] Local Historian, 2012, 42:4, p. 328-336

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/06/latest-update-to-local-history-internet-sites/feed/0Roman inscriptions onlinehttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/06/roman-inscriptions-online/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/06/roman-inscriptions-online/#commentsFri, 07 Jun 2013 10:45:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/06/07/roman-inscriptions-online/British History Online has been publishing the inventory volumes of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) series. We currently have 30 volumes online, with another dozen or so to come, and it’s a pleasure to be able to make this painstakingly researched series freely available to everyone. Among the volumes online are two that specifically cover remains from the Roman period: Roman LondonandEburacum: Roman York. I wrote about the challenges of digitising the many Roman inscriptions detailed in the volumes on the BHO blog, and gave this example of an inscription found in York:

‘To the holy god Serapis, Claudius Hieronymianus, legate of the Sixth Legion Victorious, built this temple from the ground.’

This made me think more generally about the treatment of Roman inscriptions online. The standard print work for Latin inscriptions is the substantial Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL); a project has begun to digitise this series but it’s early days. The benefits of digitisation are multiple: the CIL volumes are organised by varying criteria: geography, chronology, subject matter, but it would be ideal for researchers to be able to order the material in a way that suits their interests, so that, for example, someone researching the Sixth Legion Victorius, mentioned above, could call up inscriptions relating to it from any time or place. A final complication is that the RCHME volumes have a few Greek inscriptions, which would not be included in CIL but might be found in Inscriptiones Graecae; clearly it would be preferable to be able to query multiple digital sources at once.

I also think the complexity of inscriptions make them suitable for web presentation. For print, epigraphers have had to develop conventions for representing different states of an inscription: in the above example the word CLAVDIVS does not appear in the inscription, only CL does, the rest is an expansion by the epigrapher; in other cases letters that have worn off are conjecturally restored; in some cases grammatical or spelling errors are noted and the standard forms also given; in a process called damnatio memoriae, people’s names were sometimes erased from inscriptions, and occasionally restored later or replaced with a different name. All of this would would suit markup very well, so that the user can toggle between versions as they wish, and to search along those dimensions too.

Looking around for digital sites with classical inscriptions, I can’t say I’ve found any shining examples of what could be done, even on a small scale. Have I missed some good ones? Please let me know in the comments.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/06/roman-inscriptions-online/feed/3New database projects in maritime historyhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/new-database-projects-in-maritime-history/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/new-database-projects-in-maritime-history/#commentsFri, 17 May 2013 13:30:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/05/17/new-database-projects-in-maritime-history/The International Journal for Maritime History[1] ran a special forum on a variety of projects, some new, some old and some in development. In Some implications from the Transatlantic slave trade for maritime databases, David Eltis discusses the development of the Trans-Atlantic Save Trade database. This database, launched in December 2008, comprises nearly 35,000 individual slaving expeditions between 1514 and 1866. The records are compiled from various archives and libraries and provide information about vessels, slaves, slave traders and ship owners. By using this data, Eltis hopes to chart the geographical origins of the slaves on the complementary site www.african-origins, launched in May 2011. He outlines plans for a photographic collection and ethnographic material.

The slave trade database offers a variety of search facilities. The initially daunting search screen turns out to be remarkably easy to use and in a very short time I was able to establish the role of Cowes (yes, that Cowes, on the Isle of Wight) as a starting and end point for around ten slaving voyages dating from 1734. With such a well-established site there is the usual contextualisation of material and research materials as well as the ability to download material for particular research projects.

One such research project – Liverpool as Trading Port, 1700-1850 – uses data from the slave database to chart the rise of Liverpool as a port. It combines the data from this site with genealogical material as well as civic records from Liverpool. Stephen Berhrendt et al give a detailed outline of the sources and their incorporation into the database in Designing a multi-source relational database: ‘Liverpool as a Trading Port, 1700-1850′.

A more recent use of the slave database is a fascinating article, The speed of ships and shipping in the age of sail in the European Review of Economic History. Using a sample of vessels from the database the article shows that the speed of ships increased significantly.[2]

While the slave trade database has collated material from a variety of sources, the next project discussed uses one source – the Sound Toll Registers. The registers are an intriguing collection of data detailing the accounts of the toll which the king of Denmark levied on shipping which passed through the strait between Sweden and Denmark. The data covers the period 1497-1857, after which the toll was abolished. There are gaps in the sequence but the records are complete from 1574. The database will ultimately contain evidence for over 1 million voyages. Already the project has begun using the data in research and these are outlined in the article, Sound Toll Registers Online: introduction and first research examples. [3]

The forum rounds off with a discussion of the potential of the Navicorpus site, which aims to create a tool for capturing a wide variety of resources related to shipping and maritime trade. The article covers the types of fields and data needed, its development and testing.

It is heartening that well-established sites are providing the impetus and stimulus for other research projects and also heartening that the IJMH ran the forum as a result of a conference held at the French National Archives in Paris in May 2011.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/new-database-projects-in-maritime-history/feed/0Copyright and images, part 2http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/copyright-and-images-part-2/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/copyright-and-images-part-2/#commentsThu, 16 May 2013 11:51:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/05/16/copyright-and-images-part-2/The Permissions Controller for the digitisation of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England, Rachael Lazenby, wrote an introductory guide to copyright for images, drawing on her experience on this project and on other work that she has done. Originally appearing on our British History Online blog, part one of Rachael’s guide was reposted here; the rest of the guide is reposted below.

Copyright and images – an introductory guide, part 2

Rachael Lazenby

Identifying copyright holders, orphan works and due diligence

Frequently publishers will include images which have appeared in other publications. The modern convention is to include a caption with the image which makes it very clear who the copyright holder is and who should be approached for permission to reproduce an image. However, the older the publication, the more likely it is that such information will not be found in a caption. The RCHME volumes, the earliest of which date from 1913, contained copyright holder information in a variety of places. This included the illustration lists, footnotes, and the preliminary materials of the texts as well as in illustration captions. When considering using images from older works it is advisable to check in all these places for information on the copyright holder if the original publisher no longer exists or does not retain rights information on older publications. Internet searches, local history societies and local museums may also be able to help in establishing the copyright status of historical images.

Inevitably there were some images included in the original RCHME volumes whose owners could not be traced. Such images are known as orphan works. Different organisations take different stances on how to approach such images and every organisation will have advice on what constitutes due diligence in attempting to establish a copyright holder.(1) A record should be kept of all efforts made in trying to trace the current rights holder.

Crown Copyright

Crown Copyright applies to images produced by certain UK government bodies and lasts for 50 years. The National Archives has a very informative section on this topic, including a list of bodies whose images now fall under Crown Copyright. Many images which are protected by Crown Copyright can be used if a link appears with the image directing the reader to a ‘click-to-use’ licence.

Fair use and Enforcement

So far I’ve tried to avoid distinguishing between reproducing images for a limited circulation (such as a dissertation) and a wide circulation (such as a paper published in a journal). Theoretically copyright law covers any reproduction of a work regardless of the circulation or the commercial value of the work. Of course in practical terms the greater the commercial value of an image the higher the likelihood that the copyright holder may take legal action to prevent or punish any unauthorised use of their image.

Fair use is a concept which enables students and researchers to provide examples and quotations of other people’s works in essays and papers without first obtaining permission from the originator. Generally speaking quotations tend to pose fewer problems than images and providing they appear in the body of a text and for educational, critical or journalistic purposes, they can be used without express permission. Most educational institutions and publishers have a legal team who will be able to advise on any concerns you may have about reproducing images. In addition universities will often provide guidance on matters of copyright in student handbooks.

It is important to note that while fair use can be used as a legal defence, copyright is a complex issue, and copyright holders have the right to protect their work from any unauthorised use.(2) Following the principles of fair use will not necessarily prevent a case from going to court. The internet has made it easier to reproduce images without the consent of the copyright holder and the laws covering copyright are constantly evolving in response to new cases.(3) Although the copyright of images of buildings belongs to the photographer or artist, an interesting case went through the French courts a couple of years ago concerning the Eiffel Tower. Photos of the tower at night were deemed to be protected by copyright law as the lighting display constitutes a work of art.(4)

I hope this post has shed some light on the issues surrounding copyright of images. A few key points to take away with you are:

Copyright arises in a work, it does not have to be registered.

Publicly accessible content is not necessarily in the public domain.

Record your efforts to trace copyright holders if you intend on reproducing orphan works.

Stay within the guidelines of ‘fair use’ but bear in mind it will not always prevent legal action.

Check with your institution’s legal department if you have any doubts about content you intend to use.

(5) St Swithin’s Church London Stone. This is a Wren church destroyed in the Blitz and not restored.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/copyright-and-images-part-2/feed/0Image Copyright – An Introductionhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/image-copyright-an-introduction/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/image-copyright-an-introduction/#commentsFri, 03 May 2013 15:18:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/05/03/image-copyright-an-introduction/The Permissions Controller for the digitisation of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England, Rachael Lazenby, has written an introductory guide to copyright for images, drawing on her experience on this project and on other work that she has done. This is part one of Rachael’s guide; the second part will follow shortly. Rachael’s posts were originally published on the British History Online blog, but we thought them so useful that they should be republished here.

Copyright and images – an introductory guide

Rachael Lazenby

I’ve recently been working on the project to digitise the inventory volumes of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England (RCHME). Some of the volumes are already live and can be accessed here.My role has been to identify all images which were not provided by the Commission and seek permission to reuse them on British History Online. A full report on the methodology I devised for this work along with the results is freely available and is published here.

The work has touched upon many issues relating to copyright which are common when using images in research and so I thought it would be useful to explain some of the basics of copyright, how it affects images in particular, along with providing links to various resources available online.

Lammerside Castle, Wharton (1)

Definition of CopyrightWhere better to start than with a definition of what copyright actually is:

the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material (2)

A key feature of copyright is that it arises in a work the moment it is created by the originator. It does not have to be registered in the way that a patent might be for a process or a product. It is also important to note that ideas are not subject to copyright – it is the expression of ideas that is subject to copyright. This expression might be a photograph, a piece of text, a musical score or a painting. Copyright may be assigned by the originator to another party or waived by the copyright holder in certain circumstances.

Wherever an originator chooses to display or publish their work the copyright of the work remains with them unless they explicitly assign it to another party or until a fixed number of years have passed after their death. Copyright law varies country by country but in the UK a work remains in copyright until 70 years after the death of the creator at which point it passes into the public domain.

Misconceptions about the right to use images, especially those appearing online, abound. One of the most common is that if an image does not appear with the copyright symbol and a named copyright holder it is not protected by copyright law. Although such copyright notices can help identify a copyright holder, images without this symbol are still protected by copyright law. An image that is publicly accessible is still protected by copyright and an image being publicly accessible does not mean it is in the public domain. Copyright protects a work from any unauthorised use. Even if the reproduction of an image is not commercial, for example if it appears in a blog post, it is not legal without the permission of the originator.

Reproducing art and photographsCases involving paintings and drawings which are owned by museums can be complex. For example, should you wish to reproduce a photo of a painting by a living artist, you will have to gain permission from the artist, in addition to the permission of the organisation who owns the photo. It is frequently the case that photography is not permitted in museums and galleries, but if you have taken the photo yourself, and the composition is artistic and takes in more than just the painting itself, it may not be necessary to obtain permission. If an artist is deceased you may have to approach their estate for permission to reproduce an image if they have died within the last 70 years.

There are some organisations which specialise in sourcing paintings and drawings and for a fee will make available a high resolution scan of the work as well as arranging permission for an image to be used. Some UK based examples include the Mary Evans Picture Library specialising in historical images, and the Bridgeman Art Library.(3) Many national and university libraries also have extensive image collections which they are making available to students, researchers and commercial parties (although there are often charges for the service).

A great source of historical images with no known copyright restrictions can be found on the Flickr website: http://www.flickr.com/commons/ Their Creative Commons area is a project making freely available content from museums and galleries across the world. They also encourage tagging of the images to increase information available about the content.The Ley, Woebley (4)

LicencesFor images which have previously appeared in print or online, it is usually the publisher who can advise on who the copyright holder is, and how permission to reproduce an image can be obtained. The originator of an image might have transferred copyright to a publisher permanently, usually termed ‘assigning copyright’, or they might have granted permission for it to be used only in a specific publication in which case it is referred to as granting a licence.

Licences to use images in publications including online projects will state where and how images can be used. So for example to illustrate this article I can use an image which is now owned by English Heritage, as they have given us permission to use images to promote the digitisation of the RCHME volumes. I could also use any images which are now out of copyright. I cannot use images in this post which have been cleared for use in the volumes by outside parties as permission does not extend to any other use of the image.
(5)

The Pollard Prize is awarded annually for the best paper presented at an Institute of Historical Research seminar by a postgraduate student or by a researcher within one year of completing the PhD.

Applicants are required to have delivered a paper at an IHR seminar during the academic year in which the award is made. Submissions should be supported by a reference from a convenor of the appropriate seminar.

First prize is fast track publication in the prestigious IHR journal, Historical Research, and £200 of Blackwell books.

Runner up prizes include publication in Historical Research, and a selection of Blackwell books. A variable number of runner up prizes will be awarded, depending on the quality of applications in any given year.

Enquiries and submissions should be directed to the Executive Editor, Historical Research (Jane.Winters@sas.ac.uk).

CLOSING DATE 31 MAY

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/pollard-prize/feed/0May issue of Historical Researchhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/may-issue-of-historical-research/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/may-issue-of-historical-research/#commentsWed, 01 May 2013 11:49:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/05/01/may-issue-of-historical-research/The latest issue of Historical Research is now available (vol. 86, no. 232)

Contents:

‘Magna Carta 1253: the ambitions of the church and the divisions within the realm’ and ‘More light on Henry III’s confirmation of Magna Carta in 1253′, David A. Carpenter;

‘The “Boroughbridge roll of arms” reconsidered’, Bridget Wells-Furby;

‘Talk, script and print: the making of island books in early modern Venice’, Anastasia Stouraiti;

‘”His neighbours land mark”: William Sykes and the campaign for ‘free trade’ in civil war England’, Thomas L. Leng;

‘Was there a British Georgian town? A comparison between selected Scottish burghs and English towns’, Charles McKean;

‘”The potent spirit of the black-browed Jacko”: new light on the impact of John Robinson on high politics in the era of the American Revolution, 1770–84′, Andrew Connell;

‘Quantifying the language of British politics, 1880–1910′, Luke Blaxill;

Look out for the August special issue Early Medieval Laws in Context based on papers from the 2011 conference at the Carlsberg Academy, Copenhagen

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/05/may-issue-of-historical-research/feed/0Two Chinese resourceshttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/04/two-chinese-resources/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/04/two-chinese-resources/#commentsFri, 26 Apr 2013 10:30:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/04/26/two-chinese-resources/At a recent IHR conference, IHR Digital gave a presentation on digital resources to a group of senior academics and budding historians from China. One of the discussions centred around the paucity of Chinese digital resources. Surprisingly within weeks, and rather like London double-decker buses, two resources came to my notice.

The other resource (in English) is the North China Herald newspaper hosted by Brill and listed as one of the prime printed sources in any language for the history of the foreign presence in China from around 1850 to the 1940s. The newspaper was published in Shanghai, at the heart of China’s dealings with the Euro-American world and a city at the forefront of developments in Chinese politics, culture, education and the economy. It also acted as the official journal for British consular notifications, and announcements of the Shanghai Municipal Council; it is the first, and sometimes only, point of reference for information and comment on a range of foreign and Chinese activities.

The first five pages of a randomly selected “issue of the day” can be viewed freely. The issue I looked at (4th March 1875) contained what I took to be the usual array of adverts (rather like the Times of the same date) with one warning prospective purchasers of Martell Brandy to buy only from “respectable Dealers”. There were also reports on the fabric trade; a new Chinese government loan; and a record of the meeting of the Shanghai Race Club.

If readers are aware of any other Chinese resources (in English or Chinese) I’d be happy to hear about them so that I’m more prepared for the next Anglo-Chinese conference.

[1] History Compass, Vol. 10, Issue 5, pages 367–374, 2012

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/04/two-chinese-resources/feed/1James Bettley on RCHME, Essexhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/02/james-bettley-on-rchme-essex/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/02/james-bettley-on-rchme-essex/#commentsFri, 22 Feb 2013 10:32:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/02/22/james-bettley-on-rchme-essex/This post first appeared on our British History Online blog. British History Online is currently making freely available all the inventory volumes of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England:

The Inventory of Historical Monuments in Essex

The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) covered Essex in four generous volumes, published between 1916 and 1923. Essex was larger then than it is now – the south-west corner was cut off in 1965, to become the London boroughs of Barking, Newham, Havering, Redbridge, and Waltham Forest – but nonetheless the number of pages devoted to the county is a fair indication of the quantity of interesting buildings still to be found within its borders.

The fieldwork was carried out before the outbreak of the First World War, so it would not be unreasonable to question the value of an inventory that is now nearly a century old. But for those of us who work daily with historic buildings – and for those who only very occasionally wish to find out about an individual building – the Essex volumes remain an invaluable source of information. The descriptions of the major buildings, especially churches, are more detailed than Pevsner’s could be, and because they are written in fluent English, with a minimum of specialist terminology, and follow a standard format, they are easier to follow than the often impenetrable descriptions of the later statutory lists. Nearly all the parish churches, and selected secular buildings, are accompanied by a plan that shows the different phases of building, and there are numerous photographs taken in what was arguably the heyday of architectural photography. The maps are still often the best way of locating an individual building. And for those who wish to know more, the investigators’ original notes, often with additional plans and photographs, can be consulted at the National Monuments Record in Swindon.

Of course, the volumes have what seem to us now to be shortcomings. The brief was to cover buildings ‘from the earliest times to the year 1700’, extended in 1913 to 1714; any building (or any alteration to an older building) after that date was usually just described as ‘modern’. Moreover, works of this kind are only as good as the current state of knowledge, and timber-framed houses (especially plentiful in Essex) were assumed to be 17th, or sometimes late 16th, century, unless otherwise stated; most are now known to be considerably earlier. But that does not detract from the overall value of the descriptions.

The volumes have also become monuments in themselves. They record buildings that no longer exist, such as Little Horkesley Church

destroyed by a stray bomb in 1940; or the interior of Castle Hedingham, before it was ravaged by fire in 1918. Many of Essex’s country houses are of later date than 1714, but Albyns, Belhus, Hallingbury Place, Marks Hall, Shortgrove and Weald Hall

all now demolished, are described and illustrated as they were at their period of greatest extent.

The circumstances surrounding the compiling of the volumes are also of historic interest, as Rachael Lazenby’s post mentions. But there was another aspect to the work that was not covered in the surprisingly interesting Report that was printed at the beginning of the first Essex volume. In the Report one of the investigators, Captain R. E. M. Wheeler, is congratulated on his commission in the Royal Field Artillery. Wheeler was to become better known as the archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler, and in his biography Still Digging (1955) he gives an account of his first day’s probationary work in Essex with the senior investigator, J. Murray Kendall, in 1913. They met (with their bicycles) at Liverpool Street Station and began with what Kendall called ‘a Little Reinforcement’ – a ‘double whisky in new milk’. This was followed with similar reinforcement upon arrival at Dunmow, before starting work at Stebbing, where Wheeler’s realisation that he knew nothing about the items he was being asked to describe was consoled by a third reinforcement at the White Hart. What with that, and the outbreak of war the following year, it seems miraculous that the volumes ever appeared at all.

James Bettley

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/02/james-bettley-on-rchme-essex/feed/0Bibliography of British and Irish History updatedhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/02/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated-3/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/02/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated-3/#commentsMon, 18 Feb 2013 16:40:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/02/18/bibliography-of-british-and-irish-history-updated-3/BBIH has been updated with 4,782 new records, bringing the overall total to nearly 530,000. Nearly half of the new records cover publications of 2012-13; over 500 of them concern the history of Ireland and the Irish, and just over 200 deal with the history of London.

The next update should appear in June. You can keep informed of new records relating to your areas of interest by using the ealerts feature.

The week before last I was in Munich, at the Rezensieren – Kommentieren – Bloggen conference organised to celebrate the second anniversary of recensio.net, the online review platform for European History.

The IHR’s Reviews in History is a partner in this venture, and it was as deputy editor of this journal that I was invited to take place in a panel session to discuss the current state of online reviewing and commenting, and to speculate as to its future.

The panel (like the conference itself) was conducted solely in German, bar my own translated (and possibly therefore slightly random) intervention, and it was interesting that not just the language but the concerns of the participants and audience differed in some ways from those of British academics.

The keynote speaker on this topic, Dr Gudrun Gersmann, of Cologne University, predicted the demise of the traditional review. It was growing harder to find historians prepared to review, given other demands on their time, and in any case the new and preferable approach would be a crowdsourcing model, which would come to replace peer-reviewing by a couple of experts.

Other issues that were raised included those engendered by the sometimes more heirarchical German academic system, where a junior historian might feel loathe to be critical of a Professor’s work, or where to be seen as one of those ‘blogging types’ might be deleterious to one’s career. More familiar to British ears were the in-depth discussions as to how to secure funding to develop and maintain digital platforms such as recensio.

The debate was a deeply-engaged and at times heated one, and my schoolboy-German as a result might well have led to to some arguments escaping me! Fortunately full details can be in this round-up on the conference blog, and there are more comments here. A twitter round-up can be found by searching for #rkb13.

]]>http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/02/rezensieren-kommentieren-bloggen/feed/0Memorial Photographyhttp://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/02/memorial-photography/
http://blog.history.ac.uk/2013/02/memorial-photography/#commentsThu, 07 Feb 2013 11:08:00 +0000http://history.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/02/07/memorial-photography/I recently went to the Death exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, just up the road from the IHR. The exhibition shows highlights from the collection of Richard Harris; it is free but, on the Saturday afternoon I chose, there was quite a queue.

I particularly enjoyed the photographs in the exhibition but I didn’t notice any Victorian photographs of the dead. These have interested me since I first heard them mentioned in an essay by Stephen Jay Gould. When photographs were an expensive luxury families often had no likeness of a relative who had died and so would have the corpse photographed as a memento, as in this example at the Musee D’Orsay. Stranger, and more culturally interesting, was the practice of propping up the corpse, or otherwise arranging them in the closest simulacrum of life that could be managed. I wonder if this was done for practical reasons – that it was the best way to photograph a person effectively when you had cumbersome equipment and long exposure times. This example, with parents holding their dead daughter, clearly memorialises their love for her:

This might seem alien now but different ages have had fascinating particular ways of memorialising the dead. In Greek stelae, there was a fashion for depicting the dead person with their living relatives, often shaking hands or making some other gesture of leave-taking. The death mask, a practice that seems to have fallen away with the coming of photography, is particularly touching when taken of a young person – such as the death mask of the 25-year-old Keats, which you can see at the Keats House Museum in Hampstead.

Photographs of the famous in death do not surprise us so much. Perhaps this is because we expect the famous to be minutely documented to satisfy our curiosity. Man Ray, who did not know Proust, went to photograph the celebrated writer two days after he died – nowadays you can find the snapshot pinned to a wall on Pinterest.

There seems to have been little written on memorial photography. In the histories of photography I have looked at there is a brief mention or none at all. The best list of references I can find is seven items on Copac, under the category Postmortem photography – history.

Perhaps in time phenomena like Facebook memorial pages will come to seem eccentric too. The Facebook example illustrates how the question of death in the digital age brings problems of its own; as one blogger, following the sudden death of her husband, has chronicled, we should all be planning for access to important online accounts for those who have to sort out our affairs if we die.